Culture Takes Effort

I hear people talk about good culture, bad culture, relaxed culture, uptight culture, etc. But what is this thing we call culture? One definition is that culture is your reason for "being" and your "heart and soul."

I like this definition, it focuses on the foundation that the business is built on and the core ideologies of the leaders. But practically defining culture is not easy and is hard to find tangible evidence for it improving work productivity. Let's explore further why culture is so important.

1. All other business processes, systems, and customers are influenced by the culture.
If it is built on trust, your company is trustworthy.
If it is built on integrity, your company is reliable.
If it is built on profitability, your company is looking to improve sales, etc.
But these are not inter-related unless the leaders make them this way. You could have a company that focuses on integrity but tends to give away product to please the customer. You may have a company that focuses on profitability, seemingly at any cost to the customer (selling them product they don't need so you meet your quota).

2. Setting and changing culture requires effort. If the leaders core ideology is trust, integrity and profitability - all together - then how do they develop that culture within the company? Establishing or changing culture is a long and repeated education process. The leaders need to define what is important, give examples, provide rewards, be consistent, and take all opportunities to act in this manner to set examples. And this should flow down to the next line managers and down to the staff.

3. Culture makes vision, mission and strategy clearer. With a core ideology to guide the leaders, the direction the company must take to be successful shapes itself and helps to align the strategy with the culture.

4. Culture helps define what type of people you need to hire and retain. The people working for you not only need to have the appropriate skill set but they also need to match your culture. If not you will have a bad fit and the supervisory headaches to follow.

5. Culture then helps define your processes and your organization design.

Around and around it goes, your culture is the foundation of your success. Do you know how you define your culture? Do you work at ensuring this culture permeates the entire organization? We can measure the impact of your culture.