Culture eats Strategy for Breakfast
Have you ever worked for an organization whose cultural walk didn’t match their talk? This can be a maddening experience.
You may have been attracted to the team because of the values they publicized or the awards they received. Your personal values and culture probably resonated with the team you were joining, and you were anticipating a mutually uplifting experience in this environment.
Over time we learn what an organization’s culture is……..and isn’t……because we experience it.
An organization’s culture isn’t a list of values, although they are important to state.
It isn’t an event that happens a couple of times a year to build camaraderie and teamwork, although these gatherings can often be positive experiences.
Culture is conduct that you model, tolerate, and reinforce in your organization.
This is good news for any leader who may be new to an organization, who has inherited a new team, or who has allowed some bad habits to creep into their leadership. Culture can be changed.
Here are some thoughts to jump-start a more positive, uplifting culture:
- Culture starts at the top. How are you and your leadership team modeling habits that you hold most dear?
- Healthy culture invites questioning and takes the best ideas from everyone, regardless of position. It values the collective genius of the organization. What concrete steps can you take to make this more of a reality in your day-to-day actions?
- Culture eats Strategy for breakfast per Peter Drucker. How are you demonstrating and reinforcing this reality, showing that your culture is the most important aspect of your organization?
- Cultural standards need to be adhered to by all. Are you tolerating poor conduct from someone because you feel that they are irreplaceable? No one is, and your tolerance of their poor behavior may be compromising your organization’s culture.
- Performance expectations are an important part of a healthy culture. How are you setting objectives for your team and monitoring their performance? Accountability is vital for a healthy organizational culture.
- A positive attitude/positive culture can transform a person or an organization. How are you modeling and reinforcing this?
- Trusting relationships are vital to organizational health. Do you have processes in place to trust your team while allowing for performance verification (trust but verify)?
