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Blog posted by: Matt Trigg, Managing Director, Zindiak, 31 May 2016.

At first glance you might not think AXELOS’ latest best practice certifications – PRINCE2 Agile®, RESILIA™and ITIL® Practitioner – have very much in common. However, there is a shared thread running through each that can have a real impact on organizational attitudes, behaviour and, ultimately, culture.

The importance of culture

Culture is the combined behaviour of everyone in an organization and can be as simple as whether a business has a tidy desk policy everyone follows.

Culture is very important in establishing and reinforcing behaviours within a business as it grows and develops. Someone new joining an organization will, generally speaking, adapt and blend to that culture, retaining and continuing the values and approach of their colleagues.

While it’s always been key, culture is of increasing importance as the workplace and people’s attitudes to careers evolve. While most generations of employees have the same aspirations and hopes, there are difference in attitudes. For example, the ‘Baby Boomers’ have tended to stay with the same organization for many years whereas Millennials move company every few years. While, at first, this shift was viewed negatively by many organizations, more businesses are now actively encouraging this more transient behaviour as they recognize that new people bring new ideas, though it does pose a challenge to maintaining culture.

Businesses need to strike a balance between having a strong organizational culture that new employees can become part of but also feel able to challenge the status quo and introduce fresh ideas.

So how do you create that careful balance?

A cultural contribution

AXELOS’ latest best practice certifications contribute to a business’ culture by emphasizing certain behaviours that can be applied to individual projects while complementing a company’s wider ethos.

Take PRINCE2 Agile for example: it actively encourages professionals to adopt behaviours such as being collaborative, self-organizing, customer-focused and empowered, all of which contribute to a positive and modern environment.

More and more businesses are adopting an agile way of thinking recognizing that, versus a waterfall approach, by the time you get to Step 3, the world may have moved on. Today, businesses need to be more conceptual and flexible, although these behaviours don’t come naturally to every employee. Through PRINCE2 Agile guidance, employees can learn these behaviours and then adopt and adapt them to their role, organization or project need.

Similarly, the nine Guiding Principles of ITIL Practitioner help professionals take the fundamentals of ITIL and tailor the best practice to their organization.

While previous ITIL certifications bring knowledge and information, ITIL Practitioner helps individuals create the structure and culture by which to use the guidance in their company; this structure and culture can make all the difference.

It’s like a football team: everyone plays the same game and by the same rules, but the culture and approach of FC Barcelona is very different to the 1988 FA cup winning Wimbledon team. Success depends on culture and that culture is dependent on people.

Focusing on people

The focus on people resonates with another new addition to the AXELOS portfolio: RESILIA.

When it comes to cyber resilience, businesses often put too much focus on technology, equally important is education given that 90% of cyber incidents are employee related. I compare it to going to the doctors – most people want to be given a prescription but many really need to change their lifestyle!

RESILIA recognizes that to create a cyber resilient organization requires embedding the right attitudes and required behaviours in its people. It must be the cultural norm that employees don’t share their passwords or click on unknown links.

A shared approach

As you can see, organization culture is a clear thread that joins AXELOS’ new certifications, so much so, a new qualification that combines the three elements has recently been developed by AXELOS examination institute Acquiros. In my next blog, I’ll outline the new qualification and how it is combined with a robust approach to mentoring to create and maintain a positive culture that lasts.

See our PRINCE2 Agile®, RESILIA™ and ITIL® Practitioner sections for more information.