Design: Define and Diagnose

Every culture transformation begins with clarity.

In this first phase, our objective is to establish a shared, evidence-based understanding of your organisation’s current and desired culture.

We begin by conducting structured workshops with senior leadership using the Organisational Culture Assessment Instrument (OCAI), one of the world’s most validated tools for diagnosing organisational culture (Cameron & Quinn, Diagnosing and Changing Organisational Culture, 2011).

 

This phase delivers a clear culture gap analysis that shows where your current and desired cultures align or diverge.

Once leadership has defined both the current and preferred culture, the same OCAI survey is distributed organisation-wide.

This allows us to map perceptions from employees and leaders, revealing what we call the Triple Gap:

1- The Experience Gap

how culture is actually lived by employees.

2- The Perception Gap 

how leadership believes the culture operates.

3- The Aspiration Gap

how both groups envision the culture of the future.

Research confirms that identifying such “culture gaps” significantly improves the success rate of change initiatives, as it reduces resistance and clarifies expectations (Weiner, 2009, Implementation Science).

Building on this data, we design CULATHON behavioural scenarios tailored to your organisation’s unique realities.

These scenarios translate abstract cultural gaps into tangible, behavioural simulations that mirror real dilemmas and leadership decisions.

By the end of Phase 1, your organisation receives a comprehensive Culture Gap Map, illustrating the exact behavioural and perceptual misalignments to be addressed; a crucial first step toward measurable alignment.