Overview: Culture provides people with a design for life and to interpret and shape their environment. Culture involves a group's "shared values, traditions, beliefs, customs, stories, and art" (e.g., about health). Cultural groups transmit ways of life from one generation to the next--by intent or as a result of daily exposure and feedback. Age, personality, life and work style, and language can all shape beliefs and behavior. Multiple links and experiences shape each person's unique "mental map" of the world. Differences in these maps explain how people can describe events differently.

How Cultural Audits Work: Audits of an organizational culture involve:

• review of written materials, reports, and environments,
• insights developed from focus groups,
• surveys of some or all members to learn how they see organizational opportunity.

The Payoff: Organizations can prevent conditions that can create cultural break-down and can build cultural competence-capacity to solve problems and provide structure to help people continually learn and pursue satisfying lives. Audits can be useful when:

• system breakdowns disrupt work,
• on-going strategic reviews are needed,
• a thriving program seeks new input.

How to Make It Happen:

A team of experienced facilitators joins with a group or organization to design and conduct an individualized audit-and to develop a strategic plan to build on results.

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