Why Culture Counts more than Ever
By Bernard Chanliau, Thursday 15 October, 2009
Show me a great organization and I'll show you a great culture. Show me a failing organization and I'll show
you a failing culture. The greatest myth is that culture is intangible. Culture is highly palpable - if you choose
to see it, or are helped to see it.
I first became interested in culture when I moved from a culturally
energizing company to a culturally destructive company, both of whom had ambitious
global growth strategies. As head of
marketing in both, my job was to build brand and attract customers. In this role, the importance of culture
struck me as the most important competitive edge our company could have. People buy people and culture can't be
replicated that easily.
In the first mentioned company, there was a real sense of integrity and
pride in all that we did. The company
was alive with ideas and all hands on deck, working beyond the call of duty,
wanting to grow the company into a global success, because we could all share a
part in it. As we grew across Europe and
the USA, we spent time investing in culture, talking and meeting and designing
the kind of culture we - and our customers - wanted, integrating all
nationalities, creeds and skills, studying how best we could "connect" with our
audiences internal and external. Even
when there was "urgent business" to do or times were hard, we made time for
this. We knew that this was the glue that
would make us successful and it did. Business
flowed and I am proud to say I learnt more, worked hardest and had more fun at
that company than any other. 15 years on,
this company, now a global success is one of my strongest Alumni networks and
I'm still proud to have been part of it. That's sustainability.
My next job was head of marketing for an international management
consulting practice whose origins were in cost accounting. In this organisation, numbers talked, but not
people. Communication happened
behind closed doors, on a need to know basis and there was a huge resistance to
change, largely because thoughts and ideas could never be shared. Creativity does not happen in a climate of
fear and survival or when no one listens. Of course a culture develops by itself good
or bad - and the one that grew here was of shame, survival, arrogance, cliques
and watching your back. The company came
to life only at leaving parties in the pub.
Needless to say, growth plans failed miserably.
Culture exists primarily in our minds and hearts because organizations
are people. It requires careful
management because everyone has their own interpretation of it based on their
personal experience. So, culture also
requires flowing communication and embodiment in behaviour, rituals and symbols,
as concepts can easily get skewed from founders through to employees.
Consciously, culture manifests through procedures, brand messages,
symbols, habits and unconsciously, it manifests in emotions, ideals, values
and behaviour - developing an inner spirit.
Often the conscious side is quite well managed, but the unconscious side - the institution in the mind - is not well managed, largely due to
insufficient knowledge, fear of looking at oneself, fear of complexity, fear of
chaos, fatigue...resulting in avoidance and neglect of the psychodynamic aspects
of organisation life. It is the unconscious side that makes the
connection with the inner spirit of each organization member or stakeholder - no
spark, no connection. No connection =
disgruntled customers and disengaged employees. Continued neglect is likely to lead to
negligence.
But does it have to be complex? My
experience of managing culture has been highly enjoyable and in the difficult
times, invigorating and even freeing.
What's most important is to have a pro-active attitude and curiosity - being "up for it" and caring enough about it. That means you must in some way personally
care if the organization success or fails.
Culture requires leadership and stewardship from ALL. I
believe it should be a shared stewardship role where L&D, Marketing, HR and other functions collaborate
and co-create. Now is the time to break
down silos, because conversations are the currency of culture, creativity and
renewal. Even when you think there's
nothing to say, there's usually a question that needs to be asked.
The "space" for change to happen is key. I liken it to a pregnancy: it
takes an incubation unit, 9 months, opportunities for lots of questions and
conversations, input of new information and learning new self care habits as
you begin to see life in new ways. Get stressed or panic in the chaos of change
or the uncertainty of the current climate, and fight or flight survival
hormones kick in and you shut down and constrict growth. This is when many transformation projects
abort their "new babies". Great
culture keep "pregnant" conditions as a near constant, that's why they're
always flowing with new ideas.
At Xenergie we use a series of conversational
/creative processes to help organizations analyse and develop their culture. It's not about creating something new
necessarily, it's about seeing what's there in new ways -the best and the worst
- and getting a grip on it. Getting outside consultants to help with this
is usually necessary to see blindspots - the "seeing" takes skilled
facilitation.
So, it's time to sit up, stand up and take care of culture in whatever
small way you can, because culture really does count in sustainable business.
Lorna McDowell is an
international organization analyst, culture transformation and leadership team
coach with Xenergie Consulting www.xenergie.com. With a
background in marketing and psychology, she is a skilled facilitator of
breakthrough group conversations and understanding cultural blind spots, and internal
communications - mapping cultural integrity to brand integrity. You can email questions to lorna.mcdowell@xenergie.com
