THE CULTURE MAPP

Mental Maps
MENTAL MAPS: HOW PEOPLE SEE THE WORLD

❖ Mental Maps: Thoughts, feelings, perceptions, expectations,

assumptions, values, beliefs, points-of-view, and needs.
❖ Actions happen first in our minds, before they are enacted in the
external world.
❖ Mental maps help us navigate our way in the world (like a GPS
in a car).
❖ Mental maps may become outdated and people may be
running an old script of what’s required.
❖ Like a GPS, mental maps may need to be updated with the
latest information about the role expectations within the
business.

THE INSIDER’S GUIDE TO CULTURE CHANGE SIOBHAN MCHALE

THE CULTURE MAPP
Actions
ACTIONS: HOW PEOPLE BEHAVE

❖ Actions: What people do every day at work.

❖ Includes conduct, decisions, symbols, stories, messages, language,
rites and rituals.
❖ While you may have to dig deeper to discover often-hidden
thoughts and feelings, you can easily see the behaviours.
❖ The Actions that people take at work ultimately drive toward or
away from the results you need.

THE INSIDER’S GUIDE TO CULTURE CHANGE SIOBHAN MCHALE

THE CULTURE MAPP
Processes
PROCESSES: REINFORCING MECHANISMS

❖ Processes: The ways that the culture gets reinforced and

strengthened.
❖ Processes include systems, structures, goals, rewards, policies,
procedures, and the physical environment.
❖ Aligned processes can help to speed up the change.
❖ Lack of alignment of key Processes and Systems will slow down
your change progress.

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THE CULTURE MAPP
Patterns
PATTERNS: COLLECTIVE AGREEMENTS

❖ Patterns: The agreements between the parts (sitting at the

collective level).
❖ Patterns are often implicit or hidden, rather than stated – but
they govern how the business operates.
❖ Patterns can capture people almost as soon as they enter the
workplace.
❖ Think of a spiderweb as an analogy: Threads (behaviours)
weave together to form an overall web (pattern).
❖ People come and go from your business, but the patterns tend
to remain the same.

THE INSIDER’S GUIDE TO CULTURE CHANGE SIOBHAN MCHALE

BLAME pattern at ANZ
CASE STUDY (early 2000s)
❖ Head Office in role of
Order Giver
HEAD OFFICE BRANCHES
❖ The employees in bank’s
700 Branches in role of
Order Taker.
ORDER GIVER ORDER TAKER ❖ Both parts blamed each
other for poor customer
service: Blame pattern
“Mistakes and delays are your fault” ❖ The bank had the lowest
rates of customer
satisfaction in the country.
THE INSIDER’S GUIDE TO CULTURE CHANGE SIOBHAN MCHALE
NEW pattern at ANZ ❖ Head Office role reframed as
a SUPPORT PROVIDER to
Branches.
HEAD OFFICE BRANCHES ❖ Branches reframed as
SERVICE PROVIDER to
customers.
❖ Blame pattern replaced by
SUPPORT SERVICE
PROVIDER PROVIDER
collaboration pattern.
❖ 7 YEARS LATER: ANZ had
gone from lowest performing
“We work together to serve our customers” bank in the country, to one of
the highest performing & best
regarded banks in the world.
THE INSIDER’S GUIDE TO CULTURE CHANGE SIOBHAN MCHALE
 The Culture MAPP
Workplace Culture Model

Mental Maps Actions

How people see the world What people do
World views and meaning-making Behaviours
Values, assumptions, feelings, beliefs, Conduct, decisions, symbols, stories,
attitudes, needs, purpose messages, language, rites & rituals

Patterns
Agreements between the parts
Ways of relating
Unwritten rules, co-created dynamics, Processes
mutual interactions Reinforcing mechanisms
Ways that work gets controlled and monitored
Systems, structures, goals, rewards, policies,
Copyright © 2019 Siobhan McHale. All rights reserved. procedures, physical environment
Siobhan McHale author of “The Insider’s Guide to Culture Change”.
DISCOVER SIOBHAN McHALE’S

TO CREATE A WORKPLACE
THAT DELIVERS, GROWS,
AND ADAPTS.