See the culture that truly exists—not the culture leaders hope exists.
The UGRs® Stock Take
See the culture
your strategy is
up against.
Before you invest in changing culture, know precisely what is helping your organisation—and what is quietly holding it back.
A different kind of culture diagnostic
The real culture,
in people’s own words.
The UGRs Stock Take is Steve Simpson and Stef du Plessis’s distinctive, evidence-led way to reveal the prevailing culture before transformation begins.
It does not measure every organisation against the same generic model. It starts by defining the cultural attributes your strategy and future success require.
People then complete carefully designed sentence starters in their own words and assess the impact of what they experience. The resulting scores and comments expose the Unwritten Ground Rules influencing behaviour, decisions and results.
See the patterns across employee voice, scores, strengths and areas of friction.
Move from insight to agreed priorities, practical action and clear next steps.
Reports and leadership debrief
Evidence. Sensemaking.
Guided action.
Clients receive both the UGRs Stock Take report and a Culture Intelligence Sensemaking Pack, followed by a facilitated debrief with the leadership team. Together, these move leaders from hearing what people experience to deciding what needs to happen next.
UGRs Stock Take report
Presents the organisation’s own scores and employee comments against the tailored lead-ins that matter most to its culture and strategy.
What people experienceCulture Intelligence Sensemaking Pack
Surfaces priority signals, cross-cutting patterns, inferred UGRs, strengths, employee voice and questions for disciplined leadership discussion.
How leaders make sense of itLeadership team debrief
Steve and Stef guide leaders through the evidence, challenge assumptions, help agree the priorities for action and clarify the most useful next steps.
How insight becomes movementAI-assisted analysis helps organise and interrogate the evidence. It does not declare the organisation’s priorities: findings remain signals for expert interpretation, leadership challenge and informed choice during the debrief.
How the Stock Take works
Purpose-built around
what matters most.
Clarify
Define the cultural attributes the organisation needs to deliver its strategic priorities.
Tailor
Create sentence starters focused on those priorities rather than a standardised questionnaire.
Reveal
Invite people to describe “how things work around here” in their own words and assess the impact.
Debrief
Work with Steve and Stef to interpret the patterns, agree the actions that need to occur and determine the next steps.
A simple prompt. A revealing answer.
Around here, when someone comes up with a new idea…
“People listen, ask questions and help make the idea better.”
What leaders receive
Not just findings.
Direction.
A direct view of the prevailing culture
The words and patterns that show what enables performance and what creates friction.
Priority signals—not a predetermined answer
A severity and consequence view that helps leaders examine what may matter most, while retaining responsibility for the final choices.
Cross-cutting cultural patterns
Connections across different topics that reveal when apparently separate issues may share the same underlying UGR.
Strengths worth protecting
A clear view of the helpful norms and behaviours that should be preserved as other parts of the culture change.
The employee voice, made usable
Recurring language, sentiment and experience distilled without losing sight of the evidence behind it.
A facilitated leadership debrief
A guided session with Steve and Stef that helps the leadership team understand the findings, challenge assumptions, agree actions and establish clear next steps.
Why this matters
The Stock Take does more than describe culture. The reports and leadership debrief turn evidence into shared understanding, agreed action and a clear way forward.
Begin with understanding
What is your culture
really telling people?
Start a conversation with Steve Simpson and Stef du Plessis about the culture your organisation needs.
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