1. Culture Assessment
Survey Questionnaire
Completed by 638 readers of the
Values Coach Spark Plug email newsletter
Joe Tye, CEO and Head Coach
Values Coach Inc.
Copyright © 2014, Values Coach Inc.

2. The Culture Assessment Survey
is one of the tools in the Values
Coach Cultural Blueprinting
Toolkit Workbook.
The workbook is available at
SparkStore.com for $29.
www.CulturalBlueprint.com

3. 638 readers of the Spark Plug
newsletter respond to the 12
questions in this survey.
This slide deck summarizes those
responses with my observations
and recommendations.

4. Why this should
matter to you and
your organization…

5. “Culture eats strategy
for lunch.”
An aphorism coined by
the great business
philosopher Peter Drucker

6. Not only that, the most brilliant
of strategies can be undone by a
lousy culture.
For more on this see
my presentation:
12 Reasons Culture Eats Strategy for Lunch

7. Culture is to your
organization what
personality and character
are to the individual…

8. Culture does not
change unless and
until people change

9. Weak culture is an invisible barrier on the
performance potential of your organization!

10. As you go through the results,
ask yourself these questions…

11. Question #1
How would your response for
your organization compare to
the collective responses of
Spark Plug readers?

12. Question #2
Is there internal consistency
between responses to different
questions, or might people be
seeing what they want to see
or saying what they expect
others want to hear?

13. Question #3
If this survey was given to
front-line workers, would the
responses be the same?
More positive?
Less positive?

14. Question #4
How would your results
compare to how people at
your toughest competitor
would respond?

15. Question #5
How would your results
compare to what results would
be at Fortune Magazine’s 100
Best Companies to Work For?

16. Question #6
Are you happy with and proud
of your responses and how
they compare with everyone
else?

17. Question #7
What actions can you take to
assure that if this survey is
administered again in one
year the results will be better?
See my recommendation at the
end of this slide deck.

18. Question #8
What sense of urgency would
you have for those actions?
Immediate imperative?
Before the end of the year?
Someday maybe?

19. Question #9
When you responded are you
sure you weren’t wearing…

20. Here are responses to the 12
questions in the Culture
Assessment Survey (638 total)

21. 69% agree or strongly agree;
31% unsure or disagree

22. So…
Is the fact that 7 out of 10
agree or strongly agree really
great – or is the fact that
3 out of 10 either disagree or
are uncertain a real problem?

23. 65% agree or strongly agree;
35% unsure or disagree

24. This is better than average* - but would
you be happy with having 1/3 of your
people believing that coworkers are not
engaged and committed?
* As measured by Gallup, Press
Ganey, Avatar, Modern Survey and
other companies that study
employee engagement.

25. 66% agree or strongly agree;
34% unsure or disagree

27. They know your core values by heart?
Are we talking about the core values
posted on the wall of the lobby?
Or is it more a vague comment that
your people intuitively have good
values?

28. And if that many people really do
know, understand, and act upon
your organization’s core values,
how do you explain responses to
the next question?

29. 46% agree or strongly agree;
54% unsure or disagree

30. Only 8% of respondents strongly
agree that their coworkers reflect
positive attitudes, treat others
with respect, and refrain from the
behaviors of toxic emotional
negativity! Even worse >>>>>>>>

31. More than half of respondents
either disagree with or are
unsure whether their
coworkers have positive
attitudes, treat others with
respect, and refrain from toxic
emotional negativity!!!!!!!

32. I certainly hope that you are
not okay with that.

33. Quick aside: As I was working on this
report in a hotel restaurant a man at the
next table told me how he’d filed a
complaint about a hospital where his wife
had been patient. With the exception of
the one person who was the subject of his
complaint, the nurses were “phenomenal.”
But he didn’t talk about them. >>>>>>>

34. His entire experience – and what he shared
with me and no doubt anyone else who
would listen – was tainted by the toxic
emotional negativity reflected in how he
and his wife were treated by just one
nurse.

35. Given a story like that, is anything less
than having 100% “strongly agree” to the
question on emotional attitude in the
workplace an acceptable outcome?

36. 60% agree or strongly agree;
40% unsure or disagree

37. 72% agree or strongly agree;
38% unsure or disagree

38. Responses to the previous
question reflect the fact that
we rise to the occasion when
people experience adversity –
but why can’t we rise to the
occasion all the time?

39. 67% agree or strongly agree;
33% unsure or disagree

40. 45% agree or strongly agree;
55% unsure or disagree

41. 54% agree or strongly agree;
46% unsure or disagree

42. In today’s fast-changing, uncertain,
and hypercompetitive world you
need to embrace and drive change!

43. 64% agree or strongly agree;
36% unsure or disagree

44. Out of a possible total of
6,380 opportunities to mark
“strongly agree” to one of
these 10 questions, 860 (13%)
respondents actually did so.
Does that really reflect pride?

45. For the next two questions we
can compare with results of a
survey conducted almost one
year ago that contained these
same two questions >>>

46. Responses from the current survey

47. Same Question from Survey of April, 2013

48. Those responding that fewer than
25% of coworkers are highly-
engaged Spark Plugs declined by
12 points (47% to 35%) while
those responding that more than
50% are increased by 12 points%
(16% to 28%).

49. Responses from the current survey

50. Same Question from Survey of April, 2013

51. Those responding that more than
20% of paid hours are wasted on
toxic emotional negativity
declined by 23 points (45% to
22%) while those responding that
it’s less than 10% increased by 14
points (32% to 18%).

52. Those are
outstanding
trends!

53. Is the improvement due to the
fact that many Spark Plug
readers are implementing the
strategies that are regularly
featured in the newsletter?

54. Paul Utemark thinks so. He
says that he got a whole new
team and didn’t have to
change any of the people,
and that >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

55. “Our hospital started on a journey to create a
culture of ownership with the help of Values Coach
over two years ago. Our current survey from the
Cultural Blueprinting Toolkit confirms that we
have made remarkable progress in reducing toxic
emotional negativity from our organization... The
ongoing change in our culture is palpable and is
being appreciated by our employees and by the
entire community.”
Paul Utemark, CEO,
Fillmore County Hospital
Geneva, Nebraska

56. As positive as the trend is,
however, there is still a HUGE
problem!

57. Even after the improvement,
67% of respondents believe
that 10% (or more!) of all paid
hours where they work are
wasted on toxic emotional
negativity!!!

58. What is the lost productivity –
or put another way what is the
dollar value of the opportunity
cost – of all that whining by all
those Pickle-Suckers?

59. Work sucks
then you die

60. Let’s do the math (assuming
average employee costs are
$25 per hour)

61. 2,080 hours
X
10% wasted on T.E.N.
X
$25 per hour
=

62. $5,200 per employee
per year wasted on
toxic emotional
negativity.

63. If your organization has 50 employees,
the direct cost of toxic emotional
negativity is $260,000.
If you have 500 employees the direct
cost of T.E.N. is $2,600,000.
If you have 5,000 employees the
direct cost is $26,000,000.

64. Do those numbers get your
attention?

65. How much more productive
would your organization be,
how much more engaged
would your people be, and how
much better would your
customer satisfaction be if…

66. All those many thousands of
paid hours now being wasted
on toxic emotional negativity
could be transformed into a
positive contribution?

67. Since culture doesn’t change
until people change (culture
being the collective of their
behaviors), what can you do to
help your people change their
attitudes and behaviors?

68. Disengaged people,
especially disengaged
managers, are a
defect

69. “Whatever the engaged do, the
actively disengaged seek to
undo, and that includes
problem solving, innovation,
and creating new customers...”
Jim Clifton: The Coming Jobs War

70. But what’s even
more tragic...

71. It has a life-diminishing
impact on the disengaged.

72. “Disengagement [is] one
of the chief causes of
underachievement and
depression.”
Edward M. Hallowell, M.D. in HBR, 12-10

73. The Florence Challenge is
the gift to your people that
is also an investment in your
organization – helping you
promote a culture that is >>>

74. The Florence Challenge
Emotionally Positive
Self Empowered
Fully Engaged

75. Give everyone where you work
The Florence Prescription. At
just $5 per book, it’s the gift to
your people that’s also an
investment in your
organization!

76. With over 200,000 copies in 500+
organizations, The Florence
Prescription is a manifesto for a
more positive culture.

77. www.TheFlorenceChallenge.com
Or call the Values Coach office at
319-624-3889

78. “If we each do our
part, we will change
our lives for the
better.”
78

79. “If we all do our parts,
we will change our
organizations for
the better.”
79

80. “And in changing our
organizations, we can
change our world for the
better.”
80