Is culture the new climate change?
Everyone talks about fixing their culture or making culture their number one priority, but are companies’ doing anything meaningful about it?
Without a doubt, most companies will say that culture is important to them but when you dig a little deeper, there isn’t much below the surface than the statement itself. Often founders will list a variety of fun activities and benefits like ping pong tables, yoga sessions, boot camps etc when answering this question but the truth of the matter is that the culture and the soul of the company go much deeper.
“You can’t create something unique and compelling in the marketplace unless you first create something unique and compelling in the workplace” – Ben Horowitz
Honestly, it is quite easy to understand how culture can get the backseat in a founders mind when faced with all the other tasks in front of them. Usually, they are so busy with growth that they do not have enough time to invest in a company’s culture infrastructure. They put it to the back of their mind and aim to solve it or pay attention to it later on. However, when issues around culture start rearing their heads, the company has grown so much that this issue is now a huge problem and one that is not so easy to solve. It is much easier to shape and mould culture in a small team than a large business.
Furthermore, investing in your culture early on also helps future proof your company from one of the harbinger’s of doom in startups, high-value attrition. Having a key member leave can have devastating effects on growth. Investing in a cultural infrastructure early can significantly help reduce voluntary attrition. Companies that rate culture less than a ten on a ten-point scale are 70% more likely to have higher attrition rates than companies that rated it as a ten. Combine this with the fact that hiring strong talent is one of the biggest challenges to growth and you can already see the beginnings of a perfect storm.
Unfortunately, it is not as easy as just defining the culture you want to have and sending around an email with those points.
Alright….I get it….Cultures Important….what next?
Well…the first and most important aspect is to establish what type of cultural style already exists in your company. HBR established that there are 8 distinct culture styles that exist in a company.
Caring
Focuses on relationships and trust. Work environments are warm, collaborative and welcoming. Employees are united by loyalty, sincerity and teamwork.
Purpose
Focuses on idealism and altruism. Work environments are tolerant and compassionate where people aim to do good for the long term future of the world. Employees are united on sustainability and global communities.
Learning
Focuses on exploration and creativity. Work environments are inventive and open-minded. Employees are united by curiosity, innovation, adventure and knowledge.
Enjoyment
Focuses on fun and excitement. Work environments are lighthearted and people do what makes them happy. Employees are united by playfulness, spontaneity, and humour.
Results
Focuses on achievements and winning. Work environments are outcome-oriented and merit-based. Employees are united by a drive for success, and goal accomplishment.
Authority
Focuses on strength, decisiveness and boldness. Work environments are competitive. Employees are united by strong control and confidence.
Safety
Focuses on planning, caution and being prepared. Work environments are predictable places where things are thought through carefully. Employees are united by a desire to feel protected and anticipate events.
Order
Focuses on respect and structure. Work environments are methodical places where people want to fit in. Employees are united by cooperation and time-honoured traditions.
These eight styles are displayed on the culture framework below based on what degree they reflect independence versus interdependence and flexibility versus stability.
As you probably already assumed from reading the descriptions, some of the styles can marry up to others quite well, safety and order for example, whilst others, safety and learning might not. Each style and/or pairing will come with its advantages and disadvantages, no one style or pairing is better than the other. Important to note here is that once you have identified what style(s) your organisation has, you must also dive deeper and understand what the benefits and constraints are within that framework.
For example, if you see that your company fits into caring and order, then teamwork and trust are the main drivers. You would then benefit from having strong loyalty, retention, high levels of engagement and lack of conflicts. However, you also tend to steer towards groupthink, consensus-based decisions and avoidance of difficult issues.
The main point here is that you clearly understand the way your company is operating. This is imperative in making sure that it is aligned with your strategy. If it is misaligned with what you want to do or the strategy of how you want to do it, no matter the talent or ideas you have onboard, it will have a very difficult time succeeding.
Good…now that that is sorted time to move on.
Once you have a good understanding of your cultural style and its match to your strategy, the next step is then making sure that you manage that culture. There are quite a few ways to do this but by and large, the first step is communicating it.
Be clear.
Have it written down and articulate it well to everyone in the company. This must be fully understood throughout the entire company. Not only do the team members need to understand what the culture is that you want to have, but they also need to know the why and the how of the implementation or management of that culture and process. This is especially important as some abstract values can have different meanings to different people. The one way to get around this is to agree with all your top management on your definitions of what the culture will mean to you and how they will communicate it to the rest of the team.
This then brings the next and arguably the most crucial aspect of managing the culture. Making sure that the team leaders and managers are fully aligned with the culture and its definitions. They will be the ones that will be interacting with the employees the most and they will be the ones that can keep an eye on behaviours that deviate from the culture and make quick changes to that behaviour. But also do not forget that the team leaders and managers are also the people in the organisation that the employees will look to as an example of how to behave. If they are not fully living and breathing the culture, then how can you expect your employees to act any different?
In summary, you need to make sure the four points below are done:
Clearly define and explain the culture and traits you want the organisation to have
Prioritize managing the culture through the team and their managers (very important)
Make sure the culture is aligned with the strategy of the company
Stand by that culture in periods of growth and/or change
It sounds like a lot of work and that is because it is. There are no shortcuts. And whilst it may not sound like a priority, it is one of the fundamental aspects that a company needs to ensure its continued growth in the long term.