aergon
Culture Comes First, Performance Follows

Organisations are being faced with increasingly rapid cycles of technological, economic, and social change, which are traditionally addressed with change initiatives by management. A BCG study found that up to 70 percent of change projects fall short in delivering the result. Most of the time, behaviour, or more abstractly, the culture of the company is the reason for this. Addressing the pain points in a holistic and systematic manner, aergon supports organisations in transforming their culture through various strategies and programs that allow them to be better equipped, more aware, and more aligned in what they aspire to do. “We believe that a more adaptable and connected culture enables in making better decisions which in turn results in enhanced performance. If culture comes first, performance will follow,” says Dr. Thomas Gartenmann, managing partner, aergon.

Most organisations have their formulated purpose, values and aspired behaviours defined and displayed at their walls or websites, which is the so-called culture content, i.e. a concrete culture vision. The ability to live by this content and ambition, in the demanding everyday work situation, aergon enables what they call culture competence. Every company has a culture, the questions that needs to be addressed is: “Is this culture really understood, does it support the (new) strategic agenda and the needs of a more rapidly changing competitive landscape?”. aergon enables transformation by changing an existing set of behaviours/culture into a more supportive and aligned culture from an inside-out (psychological) perspective by irrevocably changing the mind-sets of the leadership and employees to help them make better choices.
Dr. Gartenmann cites the example of a top international player offering world-wide services that had an extremely low engagement survey, characterised by low levels of trust. After a thorough analysis of survey responses and more than 50 individual interviews across the organisation, they established a first base line and an understanding of the situation and the perceived drivers. Involving the top leaders, opinion leaders and outspoken opponents. aergon created a series of workshops that allowed the client to discuss the results, create a shared vision/purpose, values and desired behaviours while creating experiences that would allow competence building relevant to those behaviours. A sub-set of these people were selected to become co-trainers and were trained over a period of time to experience and to be able to co-deliver jointly with aergon the specifically designed program. The overall program and the roll-out to mixed training groups of the whole organisation took two years, and the results of the engagement survey and the feedback from individuals and teams clearly demonstrated the achieved transformation.

Referring to people as the key element in every successful endeavour, Dr. Gartenmann points out that aergon itself was founded by a group of longtime friends, connected by the same purpose and values, eager to learn and integrate new approaches in psychology and behavioural economics. This is coupled with a mix of a senior team of facilitators, who have over 12 years of experience in this field, and a state-of-the-art offline/online design and process.

Given the COVID-19 scenario, most organisations have offered home office solutions and learnt how to lead and conduct business online. Adapting to this change, aergon offers a tailor-made mix of online workshops supported by a flexible e-learning platform. This ensures learning new competencies in a community setting which fosters trust while providing opportunities to deepen the learning and repeat the content anytime and anywhere. “Our program also features elements that establish small learning circles that reflect on the personal experiences which they collected in applying the newly learned skills,” adds Dr. Gartenmann. At the same time, the company’s regular surveys ensure a focus on key competencies to be developed while monitoring progress and personal development. This way, the company keeps up with the changing trends of the market.