Introduction
Corporate culture is an amorphous quality that can exert significant influence over how things are done and how humans do their work within these organizational settings (Kell & Carrott, 2005). Companies like Zappos, Google, or Netflix are evangelists when it comes to the importance of organizational culture and how that’s one of the variables that have led to their successes as companies. High-performing, winning cultures cannot be spoken into existence. While this is no secret, culture is not just what we say it is - it’s more. Building a winning culture is an endeavor that matters, but it’s also not as easy as having company parties or offering cold brew coffee in the offices. You might be asking “if it’s not what we say it is, and it’s not the things we do to help attract and engage our people, then what exactly is culture and how can we build it?” That’s the question I’ll aim to answer in this post.
It seems that our thoughts and understanding about culture can be deceitful or maybe we’re just unaware of what culture is and how to build it
When a culture can attract and engage the people and players needed to win, all the effort required to build that culture is reinforced by the winning results. As mentioned above, it’s easy to label a culture as being “good” but it’s not as easy to actually build a culture that’s aligned with the company’s mission, vision, and values. Recently I was having a conversation with an entrepreneur about his company. While describing the successes of the company and its culture, he continued to verbally describe the culture as being “great,” but when pressed about what made the culture great, the only evidence I could discern was related to the annual company picnic. I’m not denying that the company had great culture, but it was striking to me how misunderstood culture seems to be, even among experienced entrepreneurs and leaders. Again, it’s not about the ping pong table, the kegerator, the extra PTO, or any other random perk you can offer your employees. It seems that our thoughts and understanding about culture can be deceitful or maybe we’re just unaware of what culture is and how to build it. I think that’s why Kell and Carrott called culture amorphous. It’s hard to pin down what culture really is and how we can influence it. Perhaps it’s easy to think of culture purely based on our own constructs of what constitutes a “good culture.” This post will hopefully address the culture confusion that exists.
Key Points:
High-performing, winning cultures cannot be spoken into existence
A winning culture that attracts and engages the right people to win reinforces itself
Reflect on what the culture actually is like based on how people within the group behave
Operationally define the culture you have while also defining the culture you want
Begin to create a plan for reinforcing the behavior you want to increase
What Is Culture?
Culture can be defined as a pool of practices owned by a society, acquired by individuals from other group members, and selected by their consequences for the society. Such practices are operant (learned) activities and are transmitted within and between generations by imitation and rules (Baum, 2003). Aubrey Daniels, a pioneer of Organizational Behavior Management (OBM), describes culture more simply. Daniels (2004) describes culture as "how things are done around here." Rather than describing your culture with aspirational words or ideas, reflect on what the culture actually is like based on how people within the group behave. This can include their verbal behavior. In other words, what do people within my organization say about the culture in their communication? One of the most striking realizations for any entrepreneur or leader is when their thoughts and ideas regarding their culture are inconsistent with what others within the company think and say regarding the same culture.
Rather than describing your culture with aspirational words or ideas, reflect on what the culture actually is like based on how people within the group behave.
How Do We Build Culture?
In my experience as an entrepreneur, there are three things that every leader should be doing to build or rebuild better cultures. These recommendations are also rooted in the scientific literature and are aligned with the theoretical and conceptual roots of behavior analysis.
Operationally define the culture you have while also defining the culture you want. More simply, describe the properties of the culture that make it unique. This requires direct observation of the culture and the products that are produced by its members. Additionally, spend focused time with key personnel learning more regarding how they perceive the culture. There can be a treasure chest of valuable insight discovered when leaders spend time listening to their staff at every level of the organization. There are different ways in which this can be done (contact us for recommendations regarding strategies and tactics that’ll help you through this process). As you’re operationally defining your culture, be sure that you’re specific. Reference specific behavior that you want to increase and sustain within your organization. Without having specific behavior in mind, you risk not making progress because you’ll have no idea what to focus on during the next phase of your culture intervention. The main idea here is simple - what does good culture look like within your organization? What do you want to see the culture “look like?” By making observable behavior the priority, you can actually influence the culture in a way that can be quite powerful. Onto the next step!
Once the culture is operationally defined in behavioral terms, you can begin to create a plan for reinforcing the behavior you want to increase. Quoting Aubrey Daniels again, he says that “behavior goes where reinforcement flows.” This should be an empowering statement. Do you want your staff to grow in their ability to communicate honestly and share their mistakes openly? Build a culture that reinforces that type of behavior rather than punishes it. Our recommendation is that you create this plan to be consistent and aligned with your mission, vision, and values. There are different definitions of mission, vision, and values. Tosti (2000) described the mission as what we do, the vision as the impact we’ll have doing what we do, and our values are the how we do what we do. I would recommend creating this culture intervention with your mission, vision, and values in mind. If you’ve never outlined your mission, vision, and values, this might be a prerequisite to culture building.
As I mentioned, culture building is not easy. It requires diligent effort consistently to guard and steward a culture. Even with the most intelligent application of these recommendations, undesirable aspects of culture will likely still exist. In the next essay, we’ll cover how to rebuild culture or address specific aspects of the culture that are not consistently aligned with the company’s mission, vision, or values. We’ll also share a process for evaluating progress in a systematic manner so that the effects of your intervention and efforts can be more easily measured and tracked.
It requires diligent effort consistently to guard and steward a culture.
References
Daniels, A. C., & Daniels, J. E. (2004). Performance management: Changing behavior that drives organizational effectiveness.
Kell, T., & Carrott, G. T. (2005). Culture matters most.
Robert Baum, J., & Wally, S. (2003). Strategic decision speed and firm performance. Strategic management journal, 24(11), 1107-1129.
Tosti, D. T., & Jackson, S. F. (2000). Organizational alignment. Retrieved February, 4, 2008.