A corporate culture is the unique expression of the values, attitudes, ways of thinking, and ways of behaving of those who founded the corporation, those who built it, and those who operate it currently. It is their collective way of assigning meaning to the world they live and work in.

Culture is seldom, if ever, neutral. It either supports what you want to do or interferes with it. You can attempt to ignore culture, but you cannot choose not to have one. It is a powerful force which can be harnessed to help you achieve consistently outstanding results.

The Productivity Tools were designed to provide leaders a way of engaging everyone in the organization in aligning their efforts to build a productive culture.

The method involves building a hi-level map of how the company intends to serve customers, make a profit, and grow. This hi-level map is really a collection of mental models which people construct together to serve as guidelines for how to work effectively toward shared goals and objectives that meet the needs of all their stakeholders.

Having a compelling vision is the best starting point to generate the energy, commitment, and enthusiasm needed to build the map. A viable business model, a clear mission and a set of core values are also central to success.

All people use mental models to negotiate their daily lives. Some of these models were learned in very different circumstances and different times. When people are attempting to work together on a task while working from significantly different mental models, the results can be extremely frustrating and even disastrous from a business perspective. For example, think about your mental model of effective teamwork. What are the chances that 6 to 10 fellow team members will have the same or even a similar view of what good teamwork looks like? Can you describe your model so that others can easily understand it? Many people are able to act on a model that works for them, but have great difficulty in describing the model to others.

It is not necessary to have 100 percent agreement on a given model, but it will help to approach that in areas that require a high level of cooperation and alignment.

It is a well-established principle that the ability to form a clear mental image of the process you want to use and the result you want to accomplish significantly increases your chances of achieving the desired outcome. Building a shared hi-level map enables people to use imagery productively.

The Productivity Tools provide a way to achieve much higher precision in execution because people are working from the same mental maps. Approximate maps are acceptable for some tasks, but most complex tasks require precision.

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