No company would think of operating without an income statement, a balance sheet, or some sort of budgeting process. Those things define the quantitative goals for the organization, and let everyone know when they are on target. Yet, most organizations have no clear definition of culture and no way of measuring cultural ingredients. Detailed cultural definitions in the form of values and guiding behaviors are a cornerstone of the change process. Not only do organizations have income statements, balance sheets and budgets, but they have variance reports and periodic audits to see if they are on target.
Few companies do an effective job of auditing their culture and measuring the gap.
Understanding a culture is a similar phenomenon. It's like water to a fish, they don't know what it is because they are immersed in it. The same is true with corporate culture. When people are surrounded by it every day, they don't see it. In a personal interview, Lee Iacocca described to us how and why Chrysler got serious about culture change.