Avanti Cultural Dimensions
Where your culture is today, and where it needs to be.
Spectrums
Each dimension is a line between two valuable poles: we stand where we are today, then step to where we need to be.
- DirectionFragmentedShared
- VoiceSilentCandid
- AuthorityConcentratedDistributed
- LeadershipDirectiveEmpowering
- UncertaintyAvoidingNavigating
- ThinkingSiloedSystemic
- DiversityToleratedValued
- HorizonOperationalStrategic
- ChangeResistantAdaptive
- CommunityDone toDone with
- Today
- Needs to be
- The step from today to where the culture needs to be
Drawn with made-up sample data.
The figures in this picture
| Dimension | Poles | Today | Needs to be | Gap | Band |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Direction | Fragmented to Shared | 4.9 | 6.6 | 1.8 | Stretch |
| Voice | Silent to Candid | 5.2 | 6.9 | 1.7 | Stretch |
| Authority | Concentrated to Distributed | 6.8 | 7.9 | 1.1 | Stretch |
| Leadership | Directive to Empowering | 6.2 | 7.4 | 1.2 | Stretch |
| Uncertainty | Avoiding to Navigating | 6.5 | 7.8 | 1.3 | Stretch |
| Thinking | Siloed to Systemic | 4.6 | 6.7 | 2.1 | Stretch |
| Diversity | Tolerated to Valued | 7.2 | 8.2 | 1.0 | Stretch |
| Horizon | Operational to Strategic | 4.6 | 6.6 | 2.0 | Stretch |
| Change | Resistant to Adaptive | 4.2 | 5.8 | 1.6 | Stretch |
| Community | Done to to Done with | 3.4 | 5.3 | 1.8 | Stretch |
What It Explores
A structured self-assessment that helps leadership teams map their organisation's culture across ten dimensions, rating where it is now and where it needs to be, and turning the gap into an honest conversation about change.
Culture is not a soft issue. It is how an organisation really works: the shared assumptions that shape how decisions get made, how power is used, how challenge is received and how change is experienced. In public service, culture is also where values are tested. It decides whether a commitment to people, communities and lived experience shows up in everyday choices, or stays on the wall.
The Avanti Cultural Dimensions instrument gives leadership teams a common language for that conversation. It describes ten dimensions of organisational culture, each a spectrum between two poles, such as Silent and Candid, or Done to and Done with. For every dimension, people rate where their organisation sits today and where it needs to be. The gap between the two is the heart of the instrument. Where team members see things differently, that difference is just as useful, because it shows where people are experiencing the same organisation in different ways.
Why It Matters
- Stated values and everyday behaviour drift apart, and the gap is hard to name safely.
- Leadership teams share an organisation but often experience its culture very differently.
- Change programmes stall when the culture underneath them is never discussed openly.
- Communities feel the effects of culture long before organisations measure it.
What You Receive
- A 30-item questionnaire across ten dimensions, rated for Current and Aspired
- An individual report showing your gaps, with interpretation and reflective questions
- A team profile showing shared gaps and where views differ
- Practical development actions for each priority dimension
- The option to repeat the instrument and track change over time
Feedback. A facilitated session to work through the results together is arranged with you. Talk to us
What People Take Away
- 1Name the ten dimensions of culture and the two poles of each
- 2Recognise where your organisation sits today and where it needs to be
- 3Explain why the left-hand pole of each dimension can have real value in the right setting
- 4Interpret Current, Aspired and gap scores accurately and with care
- 5Explore differences in perception within a team without blame
- 6Identify the two or three cultural priorities that matter most for people and places
- 7Connect cultural priorities to leadership behaviour, governance and community engagement
- 8Agree practical commitments that make the aspired culture visible in everyday work
Who It Is For
- Boards and executive teams
- Elected members, trustees or non-executives working with senior officers
- Senior and extended leadership teams
- Partnership boards across public and voluntary services
- Organisational development and people leads
- Leaders preparing for, or in the middle of, significant change
When to Use It
At the start of a change programme
To build a shared understanding of the current culture, and a common aspiration, before plans are set.
When a leadership team forms or changes
To surface different assumptions early and agree the culture the team wants to lead.
Across partnerships
To help organisations working together, such as health, care, housing and the voluntary sector, understand each other's cultures and agree how they will work as one.
Within leadership development programmes
To ground development in the real cultural conditions leaders are working within and need to influence.
To revisit progress
Before and after significant change, to see whether the culture people experience is shifting as intended.
Our Approach in This Instrument
Cultural Dimensions describes and never judges: both poles of every spectrum have value, different views of the same organisation are welcomed as insight, and the aim is to help an organisation become what its communities need.
Proper Use
This is a development instrument. It is not a clinical assessment and it is not designed or validated for selection, recruitment, promotion or performance management decisions. Scores describe perceptions at a point in time and are a starting point for conversation, not a verdict.