HBR Guide to Leading Teams (HBR Guide Series)

Appendix B

Cultural Audit

Ask team members to describe the group’s way of operating, as if you were bringing someone new onboard. Have them quickly answer the following questions, without overthinking their responses.

What would you tell new team members about how we:

Communicate

• How do we share information? (Through what channels? What’s the tone and level of formality?)
• Who can—or can’t—we communicate with? What chain of command do we need to honor?
• What’s the expected response time? Is it ever OK to be “offline”? If so, when, and how do we inform others of our availability?
• What are the standards for presentations?
• What are the standards for written documents?

Conduct meetings

• How do we run meetings? How long are they? How frequent? What’s ...