Define
Identify the cultural attributes most important to your organisation’s future success.
WORKPLACE CULTURE DIAGNOSTIC
UGRs® Stock Take
Understand the unwritten rules shaping your workplace—and where leadership action can make a difference.
Discuss a Stock TakeSEE THE EVERYDAY CULTURE
What do people learn about how things really work?
A UGRs Stock Take is a tailored workplace culture diagnostic. It explores people’s perceptions of the unwritten ground rules influencing everyday behaviour, in relation to the cultural attributes your organisation needs for future success.
Policies and values describe intended expectations. A Stock Take asks people to describe the expectations they experience: what happens when someone raises a concern, takes responsibility, works across teams or serves a customer.
It gives leaders a starting point for examining the gap between cultural intentions and lived experience. Explore the UGRs® framework.
HOW A STOCK TAKE WORKS
From culture priorities to practical action.
Listen
Use tailored lead-in sentences that people complete anonymously in their own words, with positive, neutral or negative impact ratings.
Interpret
Explore recurring themes, the language people use and their impact ratings. Consider differences across work areas where participation and confidentiality allow.
Act
Discuss the findings with leaders and employees. Identify everyday practices that can reinforce productive rules and address counterproductive ones.
Review
Use subsequent Stock Takes alongside other evidence to examine whether reported perceptions are shifting.
IN PEOPLE’S OWN WORDS
Start with a question that leaves room for an honest answer.
A lead-in might ask:
“Around here, when it comes to challenging conversations…”
People complete the sentence from their experience, rather than simply agreeing or disagreeing with a favourable statement. Their responses can reveal productive expectations worth protecting as well as concerns needing investigation.
This is an illustrative lead-in, not a client response. The wording used in a Stock Take is tailored to the organisation’s agreed culture priorities.
WHEN IT CAN HELP
Give culture discussions a clearer focus.
A Stock Take can provide a starting point when leaders want to explore how values translate into practice, understand different workplace experiences, or connect culture work with strategic priorities.
It can also inform a leadership workshop by bringing employees’ reported experience into the discussion.
USING THE FINDINGS
Treat perceptions as evidence to explore.
The findings describe respondents’ perceptions at a particular time. Participation, wording, organisational events and confidence in anonymity can influence the picture.
A recurring theme warrants investigation. It does not establish that everyone shares it or that it caused a specific outcome. Read about the research and Stock Take methodology.
COMMON QUESTIONS
Before you begin.
How does it differ from an engagement survey?
The Stock Take focuses on unwritten expectations linked to your culture priorities, using sentence completions and impact ratings. It can sit alongside engagement data and other evidence; the appropriate combination depends on the questions you need to answer.
Are responses anonymous?
Anonymous responses are part of the published method. Before launching, agree how responses will be collected, reported and protected, especially in small groups where details may identify someone.
Does it prove culture change has occurred?
Repeat measurement can show changes in reported perceptions. Interpret those changes alongside participation, organisational context, observed practices and other relevant evidence.
Where can I see examples of the wider UGRs work?
The published case studies describe organisational applications. They provide practical context rather than proof that a Stock Take alone caused commercial or safety results.
DISCUSS YOUR CULTURE PRIORITIES
Make the unwritten visible.
Tell Steve about the culture your organisation needs, the evidence you already have and the questions you want to explore.
Discuss a workplace culture diagnostic