A corporate culture is made up of different building blocks: Values, rituals and individual behaviours. There are various corporate culture models, the three most important are briefly described here:

• The "Cultural web model" was developed by Gerry Johnson and Kevan Scholes in 1992 and maps the organisational culture in six circles, which overlap and in sum map a paradigm - paradigm meaning specifically the lived corporate culture.
• The "iceberg model" by Edward T. Hall illustrates culture in two levels: the level of the objectively visible, such as strategies and policies, and the much larger level (like an iceberg) of the invisible, such as feelings, unwritten laws and values.
• The "7S Framework" was developed by the McKinsey management consultants Tom Peters and Robert Waterman. This model maps the entire company and distinguishes between three hard elements and four soft elements. According to the two, a company is successful when there is a good balance between all elements.

The culture of a company is subject to a continuous process of emergence and change - it transforms and develops further - with every new person who joins and contributes, but also through emerging structures and policies. Culture is created when people meet. That is why it is so important to create a common foundation right from the start, to agree on basic principles of cooperation and to define values. The better the values are known to all team members, the more consciously they can be lived and taken into account in decisions.

When score4more was founded, we defined six core values, which we evaluate and question in our culture retreats and jointly consider how to make them visible.

These six core values are:

Impact & Integrity.

We choose social transformation and impact even if it is the more arduous path - it is the right one. Impact is at the forefront of our decisions - so when we get stuck, we zoom out of our cosmos, take in the bigger picture and take the path that brings us closer to our vision & mission. Like a pack of cards, the "Impact" card (ace in the hole) beats ego-centric attitudes that aim at individual benefit maximisation.

Short: We are honestly, sincerely and holistically committed to our vision and mission. The social impact we want to achieve is paramount and guides our decisions.

Trust & Transparency

Have trust in yourself, trust in your fellow human beings, trust in us as a common team and our mission. Through an open feedback culture and safe spaces for exchange, we foster a trusting and respectful culture. Sharing knowledge and open communication creates transparency. We design a smart digital communication culture so that we also grow together remotely. Figures, structures and processes are comprehensibly documented and made available to everyone.

Short: We build and maintain trusting relationships with each other. Our transparent work culture fosters trust. We value our contribution and the performance of our fellow human beings.

Flow & Failure Culture

Flow is the rush of creation you experience when you do exactly what you are passionate about, can develop yourself effectively, use your strengths and are neither under- nor over-challenged. We want to create this state as often as possible on an individual but also on a collective level. We do this by offering individual creative freedom, trying things out and welcoming failure - our principle is: it is better to implement something imperfectly than not to have tried it out.

It doesn't help if we perfectionistically manage climate change and set up the smartest analysis Excel lists if we don't get into creating and thereby change something.

Short: We work according to the principle "better done then perfect" and dare to fail. Every day is a potential day for flow and ideas.

Foto von Clark Tibbs auf Unsplash