AWARD WINNING CULTURES

This month I was honoured to accept the Human Synergistics Constructive Culture award on behalf of the former Novozymes OneHealth leadership team. This award was in recognition of a company whose leadership and culture started out as constructive and stayed constructive over the course of a 3-year rapid growth journey.

Novozymes OneHealth was a start-up within a large multi-national pharma company based in Denmark.

OneHealth started as a core team of entrepreneurial leaders led by Ulrich Irgens, who were empowered to grow the a division independently of the larger Novozymes corporate structure, with their own identity and decision making authority. The idea was to build a totally new division to innovate and sell vitamins via a B2C (business to consumer) channel in a largely B2B (business to business) model.

The OneHealth culture program was designed to nurture and embed the entrepreneurial spirit and venture mindset needed to support rapid growth within the confines of a large multi-national conglomerate.

The program included four major components:

  • Leadership assessment of the top 30 leaders using Human Synergistics Life Styles Inventory (LSI)
  • Culture assessment using Human Synergistics Culture surveys (OCI and OEI) of the 350+ team members
  • An annual 5-day culture immersion in Denmark for the top 30 leaders to debrief results and set culture plans for all divisions and locations
  • Quarterly coaching for top 10 leadership team to deliver on culture plans and leadership change plans

 

The program ran over three years (2020-2024) to support the business as it continued to scale. OneHealth remained a deeply entrepreneurial culture, with its own identity – separate to but aligned with the parent company which at the time was Novozymes.

Sadly, OneHealth was absorbed into the corporate structure when Novozymes merged with Chr Hansen in the largest merger in Danish history in January 2024. The newly merged company is now called Novonesis. The OneHealth team were absorbed across several new departments as part of the merger. Whilst it was sad for the OneHealth team to see the end of their organisation, they continue to carry the passion and energy for constructive leadership into the new teams and organisations they serve. The OneHealth legacy lives on.

As the lead consultant and partner on this program, I share this award with all the leaders and team members who worked cohesively to achieve such an outstanding result for OneHealth. In particular, I’d like to acknowledge the in-house team Marie Brenoe, Michael Frantl and Katrine Ryberg Johansen who were equally passionate about culture and leadership and worked tirelessly with me across time zones, languages and distances to make it happen.

So how do you build and sustain an award-winning culture? Here are my five key take aways from this experience that I continue to share with clients today in my talks and programs:

  1. Aspire to your highest standards

Constructive cultures are ones in which we live up to our highest standards of values and beliefs. Where there is close alignment between what we say we are – our espoused values and beliefs, and what we actually are – our lived values and beliefs. In great companies, values aren’t just words on the wall or website. They are part of everyday language and operations. They are as important as the vision and strategy, because they are the moral and behavioural code that drives business success.

  1. Obsess about your employee experience (EX)

Richard Branson said “clients do not come first, employees come first. If you look after your clients, they will look after your people”. Across his numerous business and philanthropic organisations, this singular belief has cultivated multiple thriving environments and yielded extraordinary impact. Branson thinks about value creation from the inside out. Obsess about your EX, and your people will obsess about your customers. This will in turn look after sales, keeping investors happy and supporting the suppliers and communities with whom we partner. It’s a positively reinforcing value chain – and it all starts with a supported, enabled and engaged team.

  1. Measure it

Peter Drucker said it best: “what gets measured gets managed”. Most organisational leaders understand the importance of culture. However, most do not know how to tangibly measure and manage culture.  Diagnostics turn subjective ‘fluffy’ stuff into tangible, objective results. In particular, the Human Synergistics Organisational Culture Inventory (OCI) is the only survey that measures actual behaviours and provides a check on whether people are living up to the values of the organisation. Measuring culture and engagement is critical to helping leaders and team members take accountability for it, because we can’t be accountable to something we can’t count.

  1. Focus on the leadership team dynamic

The dynamic of any team is important in driving a high performing organisation, but the dynamic of the leadership team is especially important. We all take our cues from our leaders. To activate the ‘team’ in ‘leadership team’ is to sound a tone that resonates throughout the whole organisation. When the leadership team demonstrates a positive team climate of both high challenge and high trust, they make it safe for every other team in the business to do the same. That’s how they influence a high-performance culture. Culture is everyone’s responsibility, but leaders hold the majority of authority and power, and must recognise their influence as role models and custodians of culture. If you want to transform a culture, start the way the top team interact and leverage shared capability.

  1. See feedback as a gift

When people take time and effort to be honest and let us know what is working or not working for them, it truly is a gift. Leaders demonstrate trust, openness and vulnerability when they ask for feedback and take it well. By making themselves vulnerable, they make it OK for everyone else to do the same.  They create psychologically safe environments where it is OK to have constructive conflict, to own up to a mistake, to call out when we demonstrate sub-standard behaviour, and to push each other beyond what is comfortable. Teams who see feedback as a gift learn fast and innovate faster, and unlocking talent in ways that truly leverages their shared capabilities. If you want support to build an award-winning culture – check out my Transform Culture program and download the brochure from my website.

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