Examples of the 10 Elements of Adaptive Cultures at Work!

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What It’s About: Norquest team members are working together to build an extraordinary and adaptive culture. They understand that in the midst of post secondary education disruption, they need to create more value, reduce risk, and navigate exponential technology. They have given my team the privilege of applying a body of work that has taken me years to develop; what I call The 10 Elements of Adaptive Cultures. As promised in previous blogs, I will from time to time share with all of you how we are implementing the framework. The following is a summary for just a few things we are doing:

1. People First & Customer Obsessed.

A. Two of our execs are leading massive strategic initiatives to improve the learner experience and reimagine how learning is delivered. They are using this first principle to guide their thinking.

B. Our CFO is redesigning major processes like procurement that have been sources of aggravation.

C. Our Head of People killed an painful performance review process. People sent her flowers when she did so.

2. Inspiring Purpose and Story.

A. We spent hundreds of hours and undertook massive consultation of all parts of the college to refresh our purpose. (If you’re interested, we’ll share a copy of it with you).

B. The Board of Governors has approved our new purpose statement, and we will spend six months through “infusions,” making sure EVERY Norquester has a personal connection to it.

C. We will introduce our refreshed purpose statement to 1,000 Norquesters on March 13. It will be a memorable and a hallmark in the college's history and future.

3. Intentional Values.

A. While we refreshed our purpose, we also did so with our values.

B. We used a major listening process (our Culture Assessment) to emphasize what values have advanced us and to understand what’s missing. The result is nine “new” values we call our Q’s .

C. We will include the values in our company wide infusion process. Every future Norquester who joins the institution will go through a culture orientation including the Purpose and Values.

4. Great (Not Perfect) Leadership.

A. We continue to take every leader through culture boot camp, introducing them to the 10 Elements.

B. Future leadership development initiatives are being redesigned and/or being amended to better align to our purpose and Q’s.

C. We are challenging ALL Norquest leaders to have more coaching/caring conversations, provide more workplace flexibility, delegate more, and to ASK for feedback!

5. Personal Equity Promise.

A. There is NO more public money for post secondary institutions. Each has to fund new ways to attract top talent. There are NO pay increases in the near future. However, we have lots of ways for people to become “richer” in every way at Norquest. We are offering more work experiences, emotional/physical support, spiritual growth, etc. Our external applications for open positions are attracting phenomenal talent from both public and commercial enterprises

B. Our international team is exploring ways of making short term overseas assignments available for Norquesters and families.

C. You want to experiment on literally anything from VRU, 3D printing, e-sports, come to our Innovation Studio... Or apply for our Q Prize and “win” $100k to implement your idea.

And this is only a short summary of the first five elements. Next week I will share a high level update on the remaining five. Remember they work as a system. If Norquest was a stock, I believe the analysts would unanimously be recommending “BUY!” And you haven’t seen anything yet. Stay tuned and we’ll share how it’s done, including the messy, hard and frustrating stuff. This is only for the COURAGEOUS. I like when skeptics snicker, etc. They think it can’t be done, need lots of money, and more. They need leadership grit, focus, and fearless commitment to invest (as a vital complement to a good market strategy and business model). PEOPLE LOVE to WIN TOGETHER and by LOVING TOGETHER, THEY WIN!

One Millennial View: Can’t wait to hear about the next five elements, and how this all works out in real time.

- Garrett

Edited and published by Garrett Rubis

Examples of the 10 Elements of Adaptive Cultures at Work!

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