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Teaching Culture So That Our New Hires “Get It” • 103

first needs to become aware of its organizational culture. We advise that
managers begin by reaching across silos and performing a formal cultural
audit. This exercise entails a cataloguing and analysis of all aspects of cul-
ture—the unconscious assumptions, the stated corporate values, and
dominant behaviors, practices, and symbols. The exercise also includes
the identification of perceptions about the culture, including any domi-
nant myths that employees might have. If you are embarking on an
onboarding redesign effort, the cultural audit will be conducted as one
element of the diagnostic effort in your initiative (which is discussed in
detail in Chapter 8). However, as a short preview, consider the Cultural
Audit activities listed in Table 3.2. Depending on the depth of under-
standing of the current state that you begin with and the level of resources
that will be dedicated to conducting the audit, you may incorporate some
mix of these activities, but not necessarily all of them.
An audit can prove especially valuable if it uncovers practices that lead
to identification of undesirable perceptions or rumors about the culture.
At one of the firms with which we work, a perception had quietly taken
hold that golf was a vital part of the organizational culture, especially at
the top echelons. Certain executives, including a number of women, felt
left out, since they weren’t especially enamored with golf. They even came
to believe that their lack of enthusiasm toward golf would impede their
careers, as they simply felt sidelined in too many conversations. In fact,
this perception was overblown. Senior managers of this company had
many other interests besides golf, and the last three big promotions had

Table 3.2 Cultural Audit Key Activities
• Conduct data-gathering activities • Employee surveys
• Employee focus groups
• Targeted interviews with business leaders
• Catalogue key aspects of culture— • Perceptions
organizational and corporate • Stated corporate values
• Dominant behaviors, practices, and symbols
• Unconscious assumptions
• Analyze the results—identify • Corporate culture and organizational cultures
consistency and differences • Company heritage and current strategies
between… • Perceived culture and actual
• Stated culture/values and the ones that reflect
aspirations for culture