Professional Resource Center

Breckenridge Culture Indicator™ (BCI™) LEVEL I

Trying to improve the performance of organizational structures and systems by reorganizing, changing leadership, or instituting new training and development programs creates change, but when done in a cultural vacuum without knowledge of an organization’s unique culture, people often solve one problem and unintentionally create others. Ground-breaking studies like Jim Collins’ books, Built to Last and Good to Great have shown that while an organization’s culture powerfully molds its operating style and can positively (or negatively) affect its overall performance, “culture” remains one of the least understood aspects of organizational life – until now.

Is Your Organization’s Culture Preventing You from
Getting the Results You Want?

Many managers would like to improve the performance of their organization, but are not sure how
to go about it. They struggle against the flow of overly complex structures and systems and are often
frustrated by an invisible bureaucracy that undermines their attempts to affect positive change. They
suspect that their organization’s “culture” is preventing them from getting the results they want, but
it’s difficult to identify which cultural elements are the real culprits.

The Breckenridge Culture Indicator™ (BCI™) LEVEL I is a powerful organizational culture assessment tool that helps managers identify the root causes and underlying patterns of ineffective performance in the structures, systems, and culture using the See-Do-Get Process™. The BCI™ LEVEL I infers important characteristics of your organizational culture by the way respondents answer questions about three key organizational dimensions:

1. Strategic View
2. Execution
3. Organizational Climate

A description of the interdependency between these three dimensions is shown below.

The elements shown in the diagram have an interdependent cause-and-effect on each other, so a change in one of the elements will create changes in the others.

The BCI Level I measures 6 key elements of organizational alignment along the critical path of the diagram shown above plus other key aspects of organizational culture. This includes:

STRATEGIC VIEW - The degree to which your organization takes a high-level view of the external environment and its internal operations, including:

• Strategic Focus – Have you built consensus around what your organization does best, your core ideology, and your economic driver?
• Resources and Policies – Are your policies and resources allocations sending a consistent set of signals that support achieving your strategic goals?

EXECUTION - The degree to which your organization’s structures and systems are designed to execute your business strategy and to achieve the results you want, including:

• Decisions – Are your decisions based on knowledge, experience, data, and are they action oriented - with a bias toward achieving goals?
• Rewards – Are the desired behaviors rewarded and are undesired behaviors discouraged?

ORGANIZATIONAL CLIMATE - Probably the most easily understood aspect of organizational culture, climate is the day-to-day experience that people have of working in an organization, including:

• Just Culture – Do people trust the organization to do what it says and are they free to present the unvarnished truth about organizational matters without fear of retribution?
• Management Philosophy – Are managers given the authority and accountability needed to perform effectively and execute the strategic focus?

Typical Business Applications of the BCI™

• Changes in Management – The indicator gives new managers the operational and cultural information needed to get “up to speed” quickly.
• Mergers and Acquisitions – When two companies are merged, or when one purchases another, the indicator helps identify misalignments between the culture and ways of working in both entities, thus facilitating the integration process.
• Aligning Organizational Culture with Branding – The indicator helps evaluate the degree to which your brand and public relations message are being supported or undermined by your culture.
• Declining or Plateaued Organizational Performance – Managers can use the indicator to identify the root causes and underlying patterns of ineffective organizational behaviors that stifle growth and prevent organizations from achieving their goals.
• Business Process Improvement – The indicator identifies the cultural context within which business processes operate so process owners can develop more effective solutions to problems like rework, poor quality, work-arounds, timeliness, and ineffective communication.
• Strategic Planning – The indicator provides input into a company’s annual strategic planning process by indicating the organization’s Strengths,Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT analysis).
• Team building – The indicator helps create common purpose and goals for work units that might otherwise operate as functional “silos,” thus undermining the objectives of the overall organization. It can also be used as a more effective alternative to 360 degree reviews.

Training and Certification Program

The Breckenridge Institute® will either administer the BCI for you, or we’ll train and certify you to use it in your organization or with your clients. The on-line BCI™ certification program includes:

• Web-based modules that cover the theory, report structure, on-site consulting applications, and key elements of how to interpret the BCI™ report for client organizations.
  
  
• Three one-on-one telephone mentoring sessions that are focused on developing: a) a clear understanding of the BCI™ organizational culture model as described in Mark Bodnarczuk’s book, Making Invisible Bureaucracy Visible; b) a practical knowledge of how to administer the instrument and interpret the results; and c) key skills needed to help organizations identify and move beyond the impasses that frustrate and undermine positive change.

• The completion of a BCI™ Level I and a review of the organization’s results with your instructor.
  
  
• The completion of an open-book, on-line exam after reviewing the material with your instructor by telephone.
  
  
• On-going access to the Breckenridge Institute® continuing education program and supporting materials.

Completion of the certification program will give you access to administering the BCI™ 24X7 anywhere in the world where you have an Internet connection.

Tuition for the on-line qualifying course is $595

For more information or to sign up for the BCI™ certification program, please contact the Breckenridge Institute® at info@breckenridgeinstitute.com.

Cancellation Policy: There are no refunds. Once you register, our system allows immediate access to proprietary materials.

Call the Breckenridge Institute^® today at 1-800-303-2554 to learn more about how you can best use the BCI™ to improve your performance.

Personality in Context^®