Culture Club

Earlier today I found a cracking article on company culture (link at the bottom). In many ways, this is so obvious, its almost incredible that we are still regularly talking about these issues in 2020!

Kevin Martin is absolutely on the money all the way through his piece. And it really underpins that culture is not just a set of posters stuck up in corridors, extolling the vision and values of the place. But it still surprises me to this day that I’m going into organisations where even this doesn’t exist! There is nothing at all. How does this happen?

I find the absence of a firm culture most often in successful startups, where an individual has just started doing something, and it has worked! By ‘worked’, I mean made money, leading to staff being taken on, and there being a positive and continual growth. This is magic, but when you actually sit down with the board and ask, “So what is this place all about?” you often get the reply “Ah, yes, we’ve not really got round to that!”

There are real dangers in not addressing the question of culture. Say your company has grown exponentially, and you’ve now got maybe 50 employees. You might have in your head a view of what the culture is - or was, but what do your people think? Whilst you were busy growing the business, and getting the orders in, it may well be that the organisation has mutated into something you’d no longer recognise if you peeled back its mask. The truth is that the place might have become a success in spite of you, not because of you, and there is the further risk that you might not even be relevant any more. As one chairman of an incredibly successful company told me once; “When I stepped back I realised there were people doing it a lot better than I was!” Although he’d created the company from the ground up, it ceased to become ‘him’ some time ago.

If you’ve left the whole definition of culture think to one side for that bit too long, all is not lost! In fact, you may well end up with something better than you actually would have done had you nailed your flag to the mast from day one. You’ve now got something that definitely works - the magic formula. And as long as you are comfortable with it being a bit of a hybrid, things are looking good.

As Martin so clearly identifies, senior people might think they know what the culture represents, but they are often wrong. Keeping the programme within the C-suite is going to cause a disconnect, so it is crucial to get down amongst your people to identify what they think it looks like. Using a skilled external facilitator to do this makes a lot of sense. It is less likely that employees will think there is a hidden agenda, and it makes it clearer to all that this is about going forward together, without the imposition of will.

Remember, this is about extracting the DNA of why this company is now doing what it is today. And it may be that today it isn’t actually all that great and needs to be better. If that is the case, the key is to keep working hard at what everyone understands the place could be. Keep any good bits that are highlighted, but then take a very bold step; Purge the past, and build the future.

And this is where you might, or might not get lucky. Martin is absolutely right in that this needs to be walked, and talked from the very top. The CEO has to be the lead on this. If you aren’t the evangelist type - for f*cks sake take some coaching! It is so important your people see you out there, leading on this and speaking passionately about it. Delegate and fail! That isn’t to say you don’t have your influencers and energisers around the company supporting the change, but they are the life support system, not the heart and mind of the company.

Culture is the lifeblood of a successful organisation. It should evolve organically over time, and needs continued nurturing rather than just a brutal pruning every now and then. Like your people, let it grow with you and it will serve you well. And if you just haven’t got round to defining yours, don’t leave it to long.

Derek Flint Cert.Ed., MCIPR

https://www.ft.com/content/39db7e82-3947-11ea-ac3c-f68c10993b04