If you did enjoy our culture quiz for driver 1 – 3 in the book, here is more for you.

Workplace Culture quiz for drivers 4, 5, 6

Please note that in this quiz, for the sake of brevity, the word “product” is used to mean whatever it is your workplace does or produces. Whether this is a consumer product, a service you sell or a service your workplace does for another part of the organization, software, hardware, creative endeavors, or anything else, here we’ll call it “product”.

Navigation by Grown-Ups

Are you aware of your workplace’s strategic direction?
If so, is the direction sharp and focused? Or scattered and vague?
Do you know where your organization wants to be in five years with regard to its products?
Does it have a realistic strategic direction?
Before setting the strategic direction, is sufficient thought given to potential changes to the business environment along the way?
Do you and your team accept that there are uncertainties, and that your plans might have to change along the way?
Are strategic plans published or publicized?
When you look at the requirements for work to be done, are the requirements for today’s business environment or tomorrow’s?
Do you always know how your work fits into the strategic direction?
Is the road ahead for you clear?
Do you ever wonder why you are doing some of your work?
Is prioritization a normal activity within your workplace?
Do you regularly assess progress?
If you are behind schedule what happens? Is the overall schedule adjusted? Or does everyone pretend they can catch up?
Do your plans ever allow for unforeseen happenings?
Is contingency built into your plans?
Do the plans allow for sheer bad luck?
Do you feel that someone is in control and confidently setting and steering in the right direction?
Do you feel that you are usually at the mercy of unforeseen events?
Are you engaged in “firefighting”? That is, solving mess-ups, client requests, and otherwise responding to things considered to be urgent.
Does urgent mostly take precedence over important?
When you come to work in the morning, do you know what you will be doing that day?
If you compared the work to be done list for a month with the work completed for that month, would they be the same? Or were you blown off course?

The Bong of Collective Confidence

Do you feel that other members of your team, or your workplace, are people capable of doing their jobs well?
When presented with a challenging project, do you and your teammates feel threatened or not?
Do you feel that all your projects will be satisfactorily completed?
Can you rely on your teammates?
Do you know you’re good without having to be told?
Is there a sense of collective ability?
What is the attitude to risk? Something to be afraid of? Or are you, within reason, willing to take some risks?
Is your team willing to starter a project when it is known that many aspects of it are uncertain?
Are decisions made quickly without almost endless analysis?
Are the actions of your workplace best described as bold or timid?
Are teams mainly kept intact from one project to another?
Are you regularly told by people outside your workplace that your work is good?
Is your team willing to take on difficult work?
Is the team willing to take on large scale work?
Does the team go looking for interesting work regardless of how challenging it might be?
Do you and your team enjoy working with each other?
Do you confidently look forward to satisfactorily completing your current project and getting on to the next one?

The Perceived Value of Excellence and Benevolence

When you look at your product, can you imagine that it can be better given the price constraints of its market?
Which is considered more important, cost or excellence?
Do people in your workplace voluntarily spend some of their own time to make the product better?
Is your product always but as quickly as possible, and rushed out even when there are known defects?
How busy is your complaints department?
Do you have a complaints department? (There is a difference between not needed a complaints department and not having any mechanism for customers to complain.)
How hard is it for a customer to complain?
Do you and your workmates take pride in what you do?
Do you ever celebrate particularly good pieces of work?
Do newly hired employees ever tell you that they came to work here because the product is so good?
Are you ever congratulated by others in the organization (including management) for particularly good pieces of work?
Does the organization see your work as a job or a career?
Are you happy with the work you are doing and the product you are producing? (Ignore your salary when answering this question.)
Is there a sense of goodness in the workplace? Do the people feel good about their work and the workplace?
Do people often say, “Good enough”?
When you tell people where you work, do you say it with pride?
Does the organization have a strong, realistic and enforced policy on racial and gender equality?
In reality, are women paid the same as men, and is the hiring process actually free from racial bias?
Does your workplace engage in community or environment activities?
Does the workplace raise money for a charitable concern?
Does the organization sponsor someone or something?
Are you given time off to participate in a community activities?
Does your organization have a mechanism to match employee skills with charitable needs?
Does to organization donate part of its profits to a cause?
Is the organization considered to be a good neighbor?
Is it reasonable to stay that the organization harming the environment?
Is the organization making significant efforts to have less impact on the environment?
Are you happy working for the organization, and never feel embarrassed about it?