Whilst most people in business believe the culture in their organisation is positive and thriving, Andrew Cocks encourages leaders at all levels to undertake some navel-gazing and to acknowledge, possibly for the first time, that their perceptions bear little resemblance to reality.

The author suggests that we only have to look at recent situations and scandals within our financial institutions, the NHS, Number 10, the House of Commons and the Met Police to appreciate that something needs to be done about organisational culture, and that change needs to happen now.

Informative and insightful, this ‘bible’ for all business leaders and people managers (from micro-SMEs to blue-chip chief execs) demystifies what corporate culture actually is and explains why we’ve been getting it so wrong. It also provides step-by-step advice on how to change the status quo and most importantly, how then to measure and quantify the benefits of culture change.

Written to challenge conventional wisdom about organisational culture and to promote a more meaningful dialogue, all those who invest the time to Count the Dance Steps will be eternally grateful to Andrew Cocks for bringing some much-needed clarity to a subject which has such profound consequences for us all.

Synopsis:

The need to understand and manage organisational culture is one of the most pressing business priorities of our time. The growing litany of scandals across political, public and commercial institutions illustrates how we are continuing to fall well short in this regard. Counting the dance steps explores the reasons behind these collective failures and challenges many of the myths that are perpetuated about organisational culture, how it works, how to measure it and how to change it.

The author says:

“What prompted me to embark on this endeavour was my growing belief that much of what was said about organisational culture is either lazy and questionable, wilfully designed to obfuscate and confuse, or just downright false. In this book, I have attempted to challenge the current orthodoxy and provide some suggestions for new and potentially more productive ways of conceptualising, measuring and changing culture. Hopefully it will contribute to a more thoughtful and less dogmatic conversation around how we manage organisational culture, which is after all far too important and consequential to continue getting so catastrophically wrong.”

Published by Conflux Publishing, Counting the Dance Steps is available in paperback (£12.77) and Kindle format on Amazon at https://amzn.to/3MST2Zl and https://amzn.to/3kCjivd respectively