What are the models for corporate culture construction?

Introduction to the two models

The onion model is relatively common on the market and is familiar to most partners. As the name suggests, it is similar to an onion, with multiple layers from the inside out. Yes, the onion model of corporate culture consists of the spiritual layer, the institutional layer, the behavioral layer, and the material layer.

The noun alone is a bit abstract, but comparing it with some of our specific contents or carriers are:

The spiritual layer corresponds to vision, mission, values, beliefs, methodology, etc.

The institutional layer corresponds to management mechanisms, reward and punishment mechanisms, communication mechanisms and various institutional contents...

The behavioral layer corresponds to activity rituals, behavioral standards, behavioral norms...

The material layer corresponds to the VI system, office environment, cultural surroundings, etc.

In fact, the model is a regular classification, summary and induction of some fragmented content that we are familiar with every day. With this framework, you will have a clearer understanding of what level we are working on.

In terms of importance, it is obvious that the core things are more important. If the core things are not clear and you only work from the outer layer, you will get half the result with half the effort or in vain. This is also the case in many companies. If what you see or hear about culture is just shouting slogans, or posting some slogans or posters, without supporting other measures, it will not only fail to influence others, but will arouse everyone's resentment.

A single concept is still a bit abstract, for example:

For example, one of our values ??is innovation, which is the content of the spiritual level; we will continue to have innovation awards and energy conservation. System-related content such as efficiency improvement performance awards, and further down, the various innovation-related behaviors that employees will display at work are the content of the behavioral layer. Finally, we will issue badges to employees who meet the behavioral orientation. This is the material level.

If there is an example, it will be clear at a glance. We have many more that are dismantled layer by layer in this way, and we will share them one by one in the following sections.

Cultural implementation should be exported and implemented from the inside out. In this process, for our corporate cultural workers, the most important thing is, I understand, the second layer: the institutional layer. content. As we mentioned in the previous section, the idea of ??cultural construction is to find out key behaviors, and then continuously strengthen and amplify them until they become group behaviors. Culture itself is very weak and soft. Without the protection of rigid systems, behavior can easily deform or even go in the opposite direction. Therefore, we will also spend a separate chapter to share the content of the entire institutional system, which is a key to our success in the implementation process.

NLP Logical Hierarchy Model

In addition to this model, I would like to introduce to you a model that has been used within our company, which is the NLP logical hierarchy model, from top to bottom. It is vision, mission, identity, values, beliefs, abilities, behaviors, environment, and atmosphere.

The detailed content of each section will be discussed later, but I will not read the specific content of each layer here.

This is what our entire corporate culture corresponds to in a logical hierarchy. A very important step we took in 2020 was to review from top to bottom whether the content we gradually dismantled from the top-level vision to the bottom-level atmosphere was consistent. If they are inconsistent, employees will feel a very strong deviation, which is the so-called inconsistency between words and deeds, and the implementation of the culture will not be successful.

For example, we place great emphasis on innovation, but in daily management actions, managers give instructions and employees follow instructions, and employees' opinions are never collected. To give another example, we emphasize integrity, but in daily management, we have never been punished for cheating on attendance and performance. This is a culture that only shouts in slogans, and the values ??at the top are inconsistent with the behavior at the bottom.

So, consistency from top to bottom is a very critical content that we perceive from the NLP model.

To be honest, no matter what the model is, it is all designed to allow us to understand corporate culture more clearly and intuitively. It does not matter whether it is good or bad, as long as everyone understands it.