Global COVID-19 Culture Assessment

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The Barrett Values Centre has shared the experience of more than 2,500 participants from around the world in terms of the impact of COVID-19 and what people are looking for in their leaders and organisations post-COVID. The results paint a fascinating picture of how organisational leaders will need to lead their organisations in the future.

The Global COVID-19 Culture Assessment sought to answer important questions to support leaders in caring for their stakeholders and addressing the challenges we are facing worldwide.

How has COVID-19 impacted the values and culture of organisations?
What is needed to recover and thrive?

Study Questions

The study looked at the following three questions:

The Global COVID-19 Culture Assessment asked participants about their personal values (who they are), how their organisation operated before the pandemic, how it is operating now, and what is needed for it to recover and thrive.

More specifically, the survey asked:

PERSONAL VALUES: Please select ten of the following values/behaviours that most reflect who you are, not who you desire to become.

PRE-COVID CULTURE: Please select ten of the values/behaviours that from your own experience, best describe how your organisation operated before the impact of COVID-19.

DURING COVID CULTURE: Please select ten of the values/behaviours that from your own experience, best describe how your organisation is operating now, in the current COVID-19 climate.

POST COVID RECOVERY: Please select ten of the values/behaviours that you believe are essential for your organisation to recover and thrive after COVID-19.

Summary

The following infographic summarises the results:

Insights for Leaders

We draw the following insights from the research:

#1: Transformation that usually takes 5-7 years occurred in the space of six weeks.

#2: C-Suite leaders and staff want different things post-COVID.

Agility & Innovation are highly desired by C-Suite in the future relative to now, whereas these are less desired for Staff.
Trust & Engagement has less importance in the future for C-Suite, but is more highly valued in the desired state by Staff and Managers.
Direction & Communication are by far the most highly desired type of values in the desired future for Staff. Yet for C-Suite Execs, there is a negligible change from today’s position.
Sustainability & Society are among the most highly desired set of values for C-Suite Execs relative to the current situation. Yet for Staff, there is a negligible difference in their importance from today.

#3: The New Organisational Experience: Performance TO People Focus; Control TO Adaptability; Hierarchy TO Working Together.

#4: To allow people and organisations to thrive in the future, the focus for leaders in the new normal should be: (1) responding to changing needs (adaptability, agility, digital connectivity); (2) a greater focus on people (caring, employee health, and balance (home/work) and (3) working together (teamwork and collaboration, and information sharing).

We will share other data and insights in the following days.

Get in Touch

If you’re interested in exploring how COVID-19 had impacted your organisation and to help create a plan and the capability to meet the challenges, please get in touch.

For more information, please go to https://www.valuescentre.com/covid/#keyfindings.