FidesOak® is a cultural transformation consultancy that creates high performing teams.
Passionate about its work that’s centred on people, FidesOak® is named after the Roman goddess of trust, honesty and sincere intent.
Culture as a competitive advantage
Many organisations approach FidesOak® to help them improve their culture and how their people perform.
© Supplied by Fides OakEddie McCullough, managing director of FidesOak®, explains: “Culture is a competitive advantage.
“Culture is a construct that’s made by your people and what they’re going to do in the service of the business.
“With strong and connected cultures, companies do brilliantly. By attending to the culture, performance becomes an outcome.
“Your culture is intrinsically linked to your reputation and how people speak about it. How you treat people is also going to attract others to come and want to work for you.”
Five element framework to improve performance
FidesOak® uses a scientifically backed model to assess an organisation’s culture and its level of maturity. The model also allows FidesOak® to frame and develop programmes for its clients.
Eddie describes this as ‘the DNA of the business’ and it’s made up of five elements:
1. Team cohesion
This means getting your team working together in the service of each other towards a common goal.
2. Leadership support
In contrast to simple leadership, this means leaders within the organisation see themselves as servant leaders. Their job is to create and enable an environment for others to perform. They constantly ask, ‘how can I support you?’
3. Information sharing
This has become more challenging as more technologies become available. An organisation needs to be very clear about the communication channels that work, that get information to where it needs to get to for those who need to access it. This is hugely important to decision making.
4. Vision and goals sharing
This means taking the organisation’s vision and breaking it down so that when each person goes to work each day, that person knows how his or her role contributes to that vision.
This is about creating commitment rather than telling people what to do. Through clarity of purpose and clear communication, people know how to play their part.
5. Psychological safety
This refers to relationships and trust within a group. Eddie points out that high levels of psychological safety have been proven to create the most levels of innovation and creativity. In these teams, there’s no such thing as a bad idea or a stupid question.
Building trust within an organisation
Based on experience, Eddie notes that one significant barrier to building a productive culture is lack of trust, particularly among middle and senior management.
He shares: “I’ve been asked to assure groups that certain information won’t get to their boss or that somebody else won’t be able to access it so they don’t become targeted.
“When you get into high hazard organisations that becomes dangerous, particularly if there’s information within the group that’s known but doesn’t get to people who can decide about that.
“You cannot fix a secret. If you don’t know about something, you can’t do anything about it.
“Leaders need to create an environment of trust and honesty where people tell you what you need to know, not necessarily what you want to hear.”
That is the same environment that FidesOak® wants to create as it deals with its clients. That’s why it’s proud to have earned its Cyber Essentials certification from the National Cyber Security Centre.
Eddie says: “We need people to be transparent and honest with us. And one of the ways to earn their confidence is to assure them that the information we’re gathering is protected and defended.”
The success and plans of FidesOak®
FidesOak® has grown by leaps and bounds over the last several years. The consultancy’s workforce is seven times larger than it was four years ago. Over that same period, its revenue soared by 650%.
Looking to the future, the consultancy sees itself working with a whole range of clients. It says it can apply the philosophy and framework it developed to every organisation, from small to large.
Eddie says: “We would like to grow organically because that allows us to develop what we’re doing as we go.”
Care for people
Eddie attributes the success of FidesOak® to its people and the care that’s fostered within its team.
It’s this same care that it hopes to impart to its clients so they can build their own high performing teams.
Eddie shares: “People don’t care what you know until they know that you care. You can be the smartest person in the room. But if the people that you’re trying to influence don’t believe that you care about them, then most of the time, you’re talking to yourself.
“If you actually care about people, then you’ve got the power to influence.”
Get in touch to see how FidesOak® can help you improve your organisation’s culture and create a high performing team!
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