Culture
Creating a specific company or department culture requires much planning and effort.......and knowledge.
Culture eats Strategy for Breakfast.
So why do we typically spend so much more time strategising and then planning and overseeing its execution, and so little time designing, defining, planning & overseeing the execution of our Culture Build. Probably because we don't see it as something tangible that can be defined and built. Here are a few ideas to mull over. Feel free to contact us to discuss how we can help you with your culture, whether it's your team, your department, division, business unit or entire company.
Be clear on what Culture is
Building a culture requires a real understanding of what a culture is - the elements of group thinking, shared values, people networks and key behaviours that you need to amplify - what foundations are required and how to help every single person contribute to and nurture this culture. A clear purpose, vision, mission and common values are a good start, but a living breathing culture requires so much more to be considered defined and successfully built.
Invest
There is a general under investment in helping leaders learn and grow this knowledge, and to build a vital set of skills throughout a company... skills that may be referred to as 'soft skills'. But really they're hard skills... hard to master. They are real, learnable, observable skills that produce tangible outcomes. These skills are needed to shape the culture, improve performance and increase enjoyment.
It's hard to Sustain
Your culture will change. Positive changes generally take timer and effort, whereas negative changes may happen quickly. The main cause of a sudden negative change in culture is the result of senior leadership behaviour. Refer to Green Organisations here and in particular, the "Green is hard to sustain" section.
Collective Identity
Culture and the concept of collective identity have a lot in common. Having real values and principles that you live by, that you still value during times of stress, are vital to encourage and discourage desired behaviours..... its the foundations of the TEEM concept.
The Mystery Shopper
It's often a powerful thought experiment (or even a real experiment) to consider what a stranger would observe and feel when immersed in the workplace (both virtual and co-located).
Introduce the idea of a mystery shopper, the undercover client....what would they see and how would they describe it?
Related Pages:
Trust - building a high-trust environment needs to be considered as a first-class citizen alongside other deliverables and outcomes
The Elephant Memory Phenomenon - this is an important consideration when trying to drive a shift or change of culture.
See Also:
Servant Leadership - this is an article on our main website and the section on Leadership is particularly relevant to culture.
Onwards and Downwards - The Roundie Sharpens Up - this is an article on our main website related to creating Psychological Safety from within your team.
Further Reading:
Cultural models are mental structures and patterns of behaviour that distinguish one culture from another. Cultural models are based on joint experience and are shared by the majority of the members of a certain ethnic or social culture.
The Schneider Culture Model
This model defines four distinct possible cultures: collaboration culture, command culture, competence culture, and cultivation culture.