This is the final post in a series written on Catalyst’s research paper, Unwritten Rules: What You Don’t Know Can Hurt Your Career.

This week, How Organizations Can Change:

Respondents to Catalyst’s interviews were asked what organizations could do to better convey unwritten rules and whether they thought companies should make unwritten information accessible to employees in a more formal way.

The recommendations included the following approaches:

Programs and practices (78%) - Mentoring programs; formal networks; buddy system; orientation and career development programs; talent reviews; programs to help increase visibility.

Organizational culture (63%) - Increase cultural awareness and awareness of unwritten rules and values; facilitate teamwork; create an inclusive workplace.

Individual in the organization (20%) - Talk more openly about norms and rules; create more informal opportunities to share knowledge; increase your awareness of how others perceive you and are perceived.

So what can you do to help your company better communicate the unwritten rules within the organization? Start by asking yourself the following questions: Are your company’s career development processes transparent? Do the norms and culture in your organization reflect the company’s values? Is your workplace as inclusive as it could be?

Talk to your supervisor about the unwritten rules in your organization and how they could become more transparent in your department and throughout the company. Share your knowledge of these unwritten rules with junior members of your department. Become a mentor. Participate in networks in your company or start one if one doesn’t already exist. Talk to people who are in charge of equity and diversity and see how you might help create and promote a more inclusive workplace.

Take personal accountability for making your company’s unwritten rules more transparent and don’t just leave it up to the human resource folks to deliver.

As Catalyst sums up this important piece of research:

“Companies that work to recognize their unwritten rules and make them more explicit will benefit from the greater variety of talent that will be able to succeed.”