1. Copyright NDUNA 2012. Reprint with permission. Winning Culture – positioning paper
1
If culture is the DNA code for
WINNING COMPANIES
organizational genetic engineering
is the business we are in
BY
SOREN LETH-NISSEN, PRESIDENT AND FOUNDER OF NDUNA
FRANK DYBDAL LILLEORE, PhD AND ASSOCIATE PARTNER IN NDUNA
Brutal Facts on Winning Cultures
According to a surveyi of 365 companies in Europe, Asia and
North America, culture plays a crucial role in creating
competitive strength and high-­‐‑performance.
Nearly 70% of business leaders agree that culture provides the
greatest single source of competitiveness.
Actually, more than 4 of 5 leaders believe that an organization
lacking a high-­‐‑performance culture is doomed to mediocrity.
Despite those facts, fewer than 10% report that their company
can rightfully be described as a winning culture.
Is that because mediocrity is seen as salient, or is it because
transforming a mediocre culture into a winning one is not as
easy as it may sound?
Since we assume that no-­‐‑one leader wouldn´t like to win, we
choose to believe in the latter.
Here is why.
Cultures Don’t Change – They Learn and
Adapt
The founding father of the notion “corporate culture” Edgar
Schein already in the 1960’s pointed out that organizational
culture is a product of what the members over time has been
led to believe is the formula for success in the organization.
Moreover, we learn from Schein that organizational culture
has two important functions:
1. It keeps the organization together by producing an
integrative glue of shared beliefs and an common
identity
2. It differentiates the organization from its
environment and sets up mechanisms for interaction
and exchangeii
Both functions are key to understand when dealing with
analysis and intervention into organizational culture – the job
of organizational generic engineers.
Firstly, when we are dealing with the very core of the
company existence, what is, and what can be, is not completely
up to leaders to decide. Culture is at the same time stronger
and more elusive than that. The truth is that any new culture
has to – and must be – build on top of the existing.
Secondly, to understand and to change company culture, a
thorough examination of the mechanisms for interaction with
the external environment is pivotal. All too often, the outside-­‐‑
in perspective is missing in cultural interventions.
Nevertheless, as a cultural system to a large extent is self-­‐‑
referential, the path to change is to go beyond borders and
take a fresh outside look into the organizational realm. Often
only to discover the bitter truth that what has formerly been
seen as self-­‐‑explanatory and unique barely is any of it. The
cobwebs of the organizational mind must be cleaned out to
create mind space for new thinking and next practices.
In sum, the unique values and deeply rooted believes of the
company cannot be erased or extinqed. But often the culture is
in dire need of re-­‐‑articulation, re-­‐‑inactment, and re-­‐‑positioning
vis-­‐‑a-­‐‑vis the important stakeholders to become a winning one.
That is exactly what organizational genetic engineers do.
In order to create a winning culture the three main challenges
is to:
I. Unearth and assess the existing culture
II. Define the mindset and behaviors of the new
winning culture
III. Adapt and re-­‐‑channel the existing culture into a
winning culture
We take a closer look at each of the challenges in turn.

2. Copyright NDUNA 2012. Reprint with permission. Winning Culture – positioning paper
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I. Unearth and Assess the
Existing Culture
Make no mistake: There is no neutral ground to analyze
company cultures on. All methods and tools are infected with
assumptions, limitations and bias. And since we are not
aiming to back new grounds in social science but are in the
business helping business, the assessment criteria should be
pragmatic and cost conscious when choosing analytical
methods. So ‘good enough’ may be just that – good enough.
We do not believe in qualitative or quantitative research
methods – we believe in a meaningful and sound combination.
That is, triangulation.
Observation of “in vivo” management decision making
processes and in-­‐‑depth interviews with key informants using
an ethnographic method based on sociological and
anthropologyiii is powerful to firmly grasp the complexity and
schisms of the organizational realm.
But in order to gauge the prevalence of and relative strength of
certain values and beliefs, questionnaires with metric scaling
building on a well-­‐‑founded generic cultural model is
invaluable. So we do both. And do not mind being labeled
ecclectists.
Further, we utilize a comprehensive systemic model with pre-­‐‑
defined structural elements and causal relationships – the
Burke-­‐‑Litwin frameworkiv -­‐‑ for assessing organizational
performance and change. Moreover, we argue that a cultural
assessment using a tool like Cameron & Quinn’s
Organizational Culture Analysis Instrument (OCAI)
considerably adds value to understanding the dynamics of
what is, and what can be, when speaking culture change.
We believe that the best validated, time-­‐‑proven models so far
are just good enough when mapping the territory for a new
winning culture. So what is then exactly a winning culture?
II. Define the Mindset and
Behaviors of the New Winning
Culture
Extensive research has been conducted to disentangle the
winning, excellent, or high-­‐‑performance culture. Some
consensus has emerged over time. Though, we are not that
focused on definitions and the exact description of the key
traits of the winning culture. A formal definition is just an
abstract outline of something far more complex and
contextually embedded than any 4-­‐‑8 bullet description. A
winning culture goes beyond any formal description –
ultimately a winning culture is a collective emotionally
charged psychological reality that only in-­‐‑crowds can
experience.
That being said, we dare to make a few simplifications to get
off the ground. Because there actually is a few signifiers that
are common to winning cultures -­‐‑ and only to winning
cultures. We call them genomes of the winning culture.
Genome #0: Winning Cultures Don’t Just Win
This first one is out of range, but perhaps the most important
since it is the one often neglected exactly because of the focus
on winning. A winning culture does not just win. Actually
winning and high-­‐‑performance is merely a positive by-­‐‑
product of something more important, namely a unique
corporate soul or identity. The heart of the winning culture is
not about winning but about being and belonging to
something truly unique that cannot be invented or imposed.
The corporate soul dwells in the heritage and life story of the
company, and it deeply connects the members of the
organization. That creates the “winning personality”.
Personality comes first, and winning follows, but both are
intrinsic to the winning culture. A company can have a strong
personality and soul, but still underperform if it lacks the set of
values and behaviors that motivate people to do the right
things. Similarly, high-­‐‑performance behaviors pursued
independently can drive the organization into a permanent
stress mode and harm the connection that people feel with the
company.
Genome #1: Juvenile playfulness
Next, we see that a winning culture is able to evade the pitfalls
of the maturing, stagnant culture. It retains elements of its
innate juvenile lust for learning, experimenting and
challenging the existing state of things. Thus, it is partly “anti
culture” since a growing culture naturally will emerge into
more complex, more inwardly oriented, and more stable
stages. It keeps simple things simple. And do not
overcomplicate complex matters. A mindset of simplicity.

3. Copyright NDUNA 2012. Reprint with permission. Winning Culture – positioning paper
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Genome #2: High aspirations and passionate
energy
Now here is one that goes directly into winning. In winning
cultures people are never satisfied with status quo – tomorrow
can and must be better than today. Setting ambitious targets,
comparing and competing to make better is a strong driver of
results and progress. Energy levels are high and fueled by
achievement – not the other way around. The sense of
fulfillment that comes from winning is the source of the
passionate energy inherent in winning cultures.
Genome #3: Empowerment and trust
In winning cultures authority is delegated to where the
business results are created. Encouraging people to make
sound judgement calls and act on behalf the whole company
is a principle that is carried through and culturally embedded
in norms of trust and reciprocity. This reduces that need for
formal control system and bureaucracy. It saves costs and
means that speed and execution is way up.
Genome #4: Clarity, Consistency and Conse-
quence
This one links to and supplements what has just been stated
above. The fact that authority is delegated should not be
confused with that responsibility is dispersed. On the contrary
– responsibility follows authority. Being responsible for a
given outcome means for instance that if KPI’s are not met,
consequences will be incurred. Those consequences – positive
and negative -­‐‑ are made clear and accepted together with the
ownership of outcomes. In winning cultures people often
themselves propose what positive and negative consequences
there should be linked to meeting and not meeting certain
targets. Possible explanations for failure are only relevant from
a learning perspective, not from that of performance
assessment.
There is another aspect to this. When it comes to breach of
social norms and values of a winning culture this is not only
an issue to be dealt with by management. In winning cultures
socialization and social control is strong, so people will
respond directly to colleagues showing neglect of core values
and behaviors out of sync with the culture. Ultimately
transgressors are expelled from the community.
Genome #5: Stakeholder centricity
Contrary to mediocre cultures winning cultures are extrovert.
Winning is measured in terms of value creation for
stakeholders, say customers. Everybody understand and
appreciate that levels of profit and wellbeing is solely
determined by how valuable external constituencies see the
relationship and services of the company. Stories, heroism,
artifacts and other cultural assets very much reflect that the
customer is king. Winning cultures therefore also has a wake
eye on competitors – staying ahead of competion is very much
of heart of the corporate soul. Winning does not rhyme with
being number two. And being a bit paranoid does not
necessarily mean that nobody is after you.
Genome #6: Individuals who team
Despite the strong corporate soul and high trust levels in
winning cultures, collectivsm is not seems as a good in itself.
People are there to do things of value to stakeholders and the
company because they find it meaningful, so they are
primarily focused on fulfillment of their tasks and objectives.
That being said, there is a strong sense of cooperation since is
becomes very clear that rarely anyone in any sizable company
can perform on their own – it even seems as if the
organisational structures and performance systems are geared
towards driving people together to overcome interpendencies
and suboptimization. People in winning cultures are conscious
of the balance between give and take – if they realize that they
are teamed with a free-­‐‑rider, there is little hesistancy to move
on. This links to what has been said earlier about social
control.
DNA Code of the Winning Culture
To sum, the six genomes of the winning culture forms a DNA
code that can interpreted in a general cultural assessment
model (Competing Values Framework, Cameron et al 2006v) as
illustrated below.
Observe that all four dimensions of the framework are covered
by the six cultural genomes, indicating that the winning
culture is a balanced and complementary one. Then look
again. The genetic code of the winning culture is richer on the
diagonal axis cutting through the Collaborate and Compete

4. Copyright NDUNA 2012. Reprint with permission. Winning Culture – positioning paper
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dimensions. This reveals that the ”secret” of the winning
culture is that the two seemingly contradicting forces of
”internal, people focus” and ”external, customer focus” are
working in tandem to propel the success of the company. This
links perfectly with the insights from Schein stated above: we
should look for the cultural key mechanisms among the
transactions and exchanges in and out of the organiation. The
other two dimensions Control and Creativity are present, but
they are subordinated to the social activity in and out of the
company. Governance structures and innovation are means to
ends. People and Customers are the real deal. This suggests
that the endless discussion of putting people or customers first
has reached a verdict: Put people together with customers.
Applying the Winning DNA Code to a Specific
Company Culture
Of course, the actual expression of the genomes described
above within a specific company will vary. Take ”Stakeholder
Centricity”: A consumer product company may focus on the
customer by blanketing the office with life style posters
featuring its target customers. A professional service firm
might send out a weekly update on important clients.
The true test of a winning culture is whether expectations of
high performance – and the heartfelt desire to win – are
understood, accepted, widely shared and enacted through
coherent behaviors across the span of the company’s activities.
The exact expression of these winning behaviors in a specific
company context must be specified more closely.
Charting the gaps and idenfifying the pathways to enhancing
an existing mediocre culture to a winning one is partly an
analytical, partly a creative process. Here are some points of
departure.
III. Adapt and Re-channel the
Existing Culture to Win
As mentioned earlier culture cannot be changed, but through
cultivation and discipline it can be adapted and it can adopt
new mindsets and behaviors. Like humans – changing believes
does not happen by command but eventually by inspiration
and proof. Seeing is believing. Doing is acquiring new
behaviors, thereby breaking in new habits. Cultural
leadership is all it takes – and that is a whole lot.
It starts with a clear-­‐‑cut idea of what type of culture the
company needs, identifying the specific norms and behaviors
that go along with it. Then it is about focusing on the drivers
that shape and influence culture rather than attempting to
change culture itself, since that would be trying to swim up-­‐‑
stream a waterfall.
We see a handful of steps that to some extent are sequential
but once introduced take iterative adjustments as the process
unfolds. Note that the steps in the following are generic to
culture change but the description under each of them reflect
moving towards a winning culture.
The point not to be missed here is that the way a cultural
adaptation process is designed must take into consideration
the desired resulting culture – the way we work with culture
will impact culture itself. Subject matter and method are
intertwined in culture work. This is something that rarely is
observed in mainstream change management literature.
1. Set the Direction for the Winning Culture
The results from assessing the current culture and describing
the specific behaviors must be baked into a compelling
transition story. The transition story should at the same time
reassure that the unique corporate soul remains intact and
clearly state the need for adopting specific new behaviors that
will turn current practices into winning ones.
The transition story must be told and otherwise conveyed in
various ways to both provide overall messages at a company
level and – evenly importantly – be cascaded to a unit, team,
and even individual level in order to provide guidance,
involvement and ownership.
The transition story must be phrased as an open invitation to
everybody. An invitation needs a reaction from the receiving
party. Accepting the offer means that you are joining the party.
Turning the invitation down means that the party still will
take place – but without you. Same story if you choose not
react to the invitation. Consent is mandatory.
2. Galvanize the Leadership Team for the
Cultural Crusade
A wide range of factors influence culture, and leadership is the
single most important one. What leaders do and say – in that
order – consistently over time shapes culture like nothing else.
Therefore, the leadership team must stay close throughout the
transition period. If the stretch between what is and what will
be is relatively large even small cracks in rhetoric and
management conduct eventually will undermine the whole
new construction.
It is a universal norm that action speaks much louder than
words. And if the two differ action always has the upper hand.
So before walking the talk, the leadership team has quite a lot
of talking the walk to do. How should resistance be handled?
What should be the consequence of people or units not
meeting new performance measures – is there a second chance
when not being first in a winning culture? Which occurrences

5. Copyright NDUNA 2012. Reprint with permission. Winning Culture – positioning paper
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or conditions could justify exceptions to the new regime – if
any? When it comes to creating a winning culture those
questions cannot be taken lightly – our advice would be to
demonstrate “tough love”. Also internally in the leadership
team should that be necessitated.
3. Kick-start New Behaviors in the
Organization on a Business Agenda
A culture of accountability and performance is best achieved
by holding people accountable for results and actual delivery,
rather than spending efforts on running a “culture change
programme”. Again, the change method must in itself reflect
the theme of the change at hand. In winning cultures the focus
is on action and real achievement so let it be that way.
The simplest way to initiate the transition is to change the
KPI’s in the level 2 management layer to reflect the desired
behaviors and results. Spice that up by doubling the
consequences of meeting and missing KPI’s. Make sure that a
fair share of the KPI’s are interlinked and shared where
interdependencies calls for teamwork and common effort.
This cocktail most likely will trigger an avalanche of changes
in performance schemes down the lines. Behavioral domino.
4. Drive Change by Managing Cultural
Drivers
Now here is a job to be done by the leadership team. The
transition can indirectly be impacted dramatically by
redesigning processes, roles, performance management,
performance metrics and incentive structures. Also HR
practices around promotion, recruitment, talent development
etc can help speeding up the transition.
Pull as many levers as possible to thrust the organization and
behavior in the direction of the winning culture. Attrition and
recruitment directly aimed at creating the new culture is
indeed powerful – it demonstrates the resolve to move beyond
the point of no return and will turn up the heat on any
lukewarm followers. Increasing the non-­‐‑voluntary turnover by
just 5-­‐‑10 % will work wonders – guaranteed.
5. Communicate, Celebrate – and be
Relentless
Cultural change can be a long haul – and one that requires
tireless leadership. Transitions that go deep into realigning the
corporate soul with a whole range of new winning behaviors
will easily span 2-­‐‑3 years time. That is, if things go smooth.
The smoothness is fueled by consistent, sustained
communication and reinforcement of the new behaviors,
demonstrating over and over again that they indeed are
winning.
Victories and important milestones should be celebrated
appropriately – but resist the temptation to declare victory
outright. Tuning and pruning is always needed on an ongoing
basis.
As a former CEO reflected after 6 years of transition efforts
turning an aristocratic, highly departmentalized and silo-­‐‑
thinking company into a flexible matrix-­‐‑organized market-­‐‑
driven innovator: ”My job nowadays is that of a gardener –
though, not to cultivate and fertilize the soil. But to start up the
hedge trimmer every now and then when for instance small
departments and permanent project groups start creeping back
in on our hard earned flexible ways of organizing ourselves”.
i Source: Bain survey, 2006
ii Schein, E. H. Organizational Culture and Leadership. (2004) 3rd
edition. CA: Jossey-­‐‑Bass.
iii Geertz, C. (1973) The Interpretation of Cultures. New York:
Basic Books
iv Burke W W & G H Litwin (1992). A Causal Model of
Organizational Performance and Change. Journal of
Management. 1992, vol 18, No. 3, 523-­‐‑545
v Cameron, K S, Quinn R E, Degraff J, and Thakor A V. (2006)
Competing Values Framework – creating value in organizations.
New Horizons in Management.