“What’s the speed limit here?”

That was the question I asked my Italian navigator, and wife, as we careered through another small Calabrian village. “50!”, she shouts, as I fleetingly look down at the speedo showing 80 kilometres an hour. Despite driving at what I thought were excessively high speeds, the locals were piling up close behind me, putting pressure on me to go faster!    

During my many hours of driving across Italy into Germany, I had plenty of time to reflect on the social norms and culture of national driver behaviour.     

Social scientists talk about two main types of social norms:    

1. Injunctive – how people should behave 

2. Descriptive – how people actually behave.   

Driving through southern Italian villages, the Injunctive norm was very clear with road signs showing (50). The Descriptive norms, however, pressured me to drive well above it. And wanting to fit it, I exceeded the limit for most of the time driving in Italy. It wasn’t till we got to Germany that the Descriptive and Injunctive norms started to align. I found myself exceeding the limit less and less, as Germans complied with the sign posted limits.     

Organisational culture is the same. We get told the Injunctive norms by the values statements etc, but we ended up complying to the Descriptive norms – how everyone is behaving. We do it to fit in – even if it means putting ourselves and loved ones in danger.   

How can organisations measure behaviour?

Leaders have the power not only to gauge but also to transform the social norms within their teams and organisations. In simpler terms, they can influence their teams' habitual behaviours.

Our approach employs the interpersonal circumplex, renowned as the most scientifically validated metric for interpersonal behaviour. In collaboration with Professor Ken Locke from the University of Idaho, we've crafted two specialised versions for assessment:

1. Organisational Culture: Circumplex Culture Scan (CCS)

2. Team Culture: Circumplex Team Scan (CTS)

What sets these tools apart is their capacity to measure both:

Injunctive Norms: The way people ‘should’ behave, representing the Ideal Culture.

Descriptive Norms: The way people ‘actually’ behave, depicting the Current Culture.

By comparing the Ideal and Current circumplexes' findings, we can pinpoint specific behaviours that require modification. For instance, encouraging 'active listening' while curbing tendencies to 'bully others to assert one's way'. With these insights, practical strategies are established to assist leaders and team members in adopting new, constructive interaction habits that bolster performance.