In this course, I've tried to communicate the importance of ongoing culture management to build a high performance culture that represents a true competitive differentiator for your company. I presented a methodology called organizational archaeology, which I believe takes the mystery out of culture analysis and management. And it's based on studying specific artifacts that are either social material or ideological in nature. Here's some things to keep in mind as you begin to apply organizational archaeology in a formal culture Improvement Program. When implementing organizational archaeology, remember that culture change does not happen quickly, it doesn't happen overnight. It requires senior management support, employee buy in and formal culture change communication programs and new management policies and procedures to advance your specific cultural objectives.

Stay Simply, cultural analysis management require an organization wide commitment to change. Organizational archaeology can be used in studying an existing culture, of course, but it could also be applied in startup companies situations, where the founders of the organization seek to instill certain cultural ideals as a starting point for building the cultures character and personality, and to help it to become ultimately a high performance culture. Take for example, the artifact of corporate citizenship which we discussed in the context of ideological artifacts, that the founders of the organization feel that that is a desirable trait. They can Institute it and then begin to build formal programs, policies and procedures around it, to instill it as part of the company's culture and to use it as the basis for developing a high performance culture. Now let's talk about a class project that you can undertake to begin to immediately apply organizational archaeology, in formal culture improvement Initiative's.

I mentioned in the course introduction that my research for organizational archaeology involves feedback from senior HR decision makers from around the world. When asked which artifacts were most important to building a high performance culture, HR leaders cited these five artifacts, ethics, employee communication policies and programs, knowledge sharing, employee evaluation policies, and corporate mission and goals. In the class project, study your organization's culture by examining two or more of these traits determine how strongly these traits define the culture and try to understand how they came into existence. Above all, try to determine whether the artifacts represent cultural strengths or weaknesses. examine these cultural traits as a starting point for a more expansive team based approach to a formal cultural analysis program. Thank you again for taking this course.

On optimizing culture for competitive advantage, I look forward to interacting with students online and to fielding your comments, questions and ideas. I wish you the best of luck in all your cultural improvement initiatives.