Culture Mapping – Best Practices Online Tools & Templates

Culture Mapping is a process an organization goes through to “map out” the culture within its organization. Typically a “Culture Mapping Team” collects data and information that sheds light on the norms, values and other factors that are often being enhanced, intentionally or unintentionally, by management.

A Culture Mapping team typically possesses knowledge of human resources, organizational behavior, industrial-organizational psychology, and leadership. The team conducts research including interviews and interactive sessions with employees to gain insight into the dynamics shaping the organization.

There are four major reasons it is important to have a Culture Mapping team guide the process:

1. With a team from the outside, employees are prone to be honest. In addition, an outside team provides a neutral perspective, and does not have any ties to the company other than helping the organization be successful.
2. The Culture Mapping team asks tough questions that others may avoid.
3. The team encourages employees to share what they think is holding them back from being successful and what environment they think will create a feeling of support, while emphasizing that everything they share is anonymous.
4. The team is there to hear and learn while letting employees know that at the end, they will be presenting their findings to the management as recommendations for the organization. In the end it is up to the management to decide what to implement.

Culture Mapping gives an organization the perspective needed to create a supportive environment and maximize the chances of success.

Various tools and templates can be used for Culture Mapping. It can be helpful to choose a model of organizational culture to guide research and summarize findings.

Unlike most traditional Culture Mapping processes, upBOARD’s online Culture Mapping tools allow any team or organization to instantly begin working with our web templates and input forms. Our digital platform goes far beyond other software tools by including progress dashboards, data integration from existing documents or other SaaS software, elegant intuitive designs, and full access on any desktop or mobile device.

Learn more about upBOARD’s full portfolio of online digital best practice tools and templates for specific topics, including business strategy, marketing, human resources, operations, innovation, project management, change management, and software development.

Learn more about upBOARD’s portfolio of other human resources best practice tools and templates, including:

Career Planning, Change Management, Communication Management, Competency-Based Interviewing, Critical Incidents, Culture Mapping, Delphi Method, Employee Engagement Surveys, Executive & Leadership Coaching, Growth Mindset, Herzberg’s Two-Factor Theory, Job Analysis, Job Description, Learning and Growth Perspective, Mentoring, Performance Management, RACI, Resource Breakdown Structures (RBS), Retirement Index, Skills Requirement Checklist, Stakeholder Analysis, and Workday Task Analysis.