Many people in organizations, including their leaders, have no idea what organization culture is. One definition of business culture is “a system of shared assumptions, values, and beliefs, which governs how people behave in organizations.” Examples are helpful to describe business culture. It is very likely that one would get a very different feel from a 1970’s aerospace corporation, a garage-level 1990’s CD-ROM company, and a present day government agency specializing in low-income housing. More than likely, the aerospace corporation of decades past would put business operations first and people second. The little CD-ROM company could have an informal dress-down style while the government agency might have programs such as diversity training.
How important is the culture of an organization? According to Peter Drucker, author, educator, and management consultant, “culture eats strategy for breakfast”. In an article from Meliorate by Torben Rick entitled “Organizational Culture Eats Strategy for Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner”, the authors make a number of interesting and instructive points regarding improving business culture. They include:
1) Strategy, capabilities, and culture all need to be designed together and enabling of each other. Don’t regard your company culture as an “HR thing”. Another company can copy your strategy but never your culture.
2) Proper organizational alignment is the glue for achieving better performance. This process must be a deliberate effort from the top. However, culture is cultivated from the bottom. Who is recruited influences culture.
3) Have a company purpose beyond profit. Remember that profit is not likely to influence staff unless they are shareholders too. Connect people to a purpose in your company. Another instructive point is that there is a strong correlation between how your employees feel about your company and how your customers feel about it.
4) Create a shared vision, mission, strategy, and values. Build teams and create an internal network.
5) Visualize the journey but communicate the targets in a simple way.
6) Involve the whole organization in a dialogue. Managers need to put themselves in the employee’s place to comprehend organizational change. Open-ended conversations can often yield the most advantageous outcomes.
7) Organize something out of the office together like a company picnic, a sporting activity, or volunteering.
8) Have a “talk lunch” with employees chosen at random to hear their concerns and ideas.
9) Share metrics with your employees and not just financial numbers.
10) Create, acknowledge, and celebrate successes and milestones achieved. Hold “People’s Choice Awards”.
11) Measure early and often, and tell everyone about it.
In another article from Entrepreneur by Jeremy Bloom, co-founder and CEO of Integrate, entitled “6 Steps for Creating a Strong Company Culture”, he emphasizes some other important steps in forming a solid business culture. One of these is to foster transparency. Along with sharing metrics, he has created an every other Friday all-hands calls. Everyone in the company can call and ask questions, even anonymously in a private online forum. He understands that employees need to disconnect from work sometimes and that there are instances where serious personal matters take priority over business. He prefers giving general guidelines rather than micromanaging—letting the employee take on tasks, make decisions, and find solutions. Physical space comes into play. There are some employees on the introverted side who would benefit from closing their door in order to perform more efficiently. Get feedback not just from your employees but also from your customers. Review and possibly improve how you do everything: your communication; company policies and division of responsibilities; building teams; performance indicators and evaluations; and when, where, why, and how you hold meetings.
This article attempts to define company culture and describe the many ways it can be improved. Working on this is as important as anything else you will do with your organization.
Originally published on LinkedIn. Republished with permission.
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