Image Credit : Egor Komarov / Pexels
Of the many things that fascinate me about organizational culture, one is how many perspectives, metaphors and definitions swirl around the topic. Definitions are critical of course because thats how concepts get codified and, over time, are universally understood.
Many of the definitions include key terms like values, behaviours, standards, attitudes. Those are vital elements of course.
Some add interesting terms like rules and rituals to capture the symbolic importance of behaviours that might seem alien to some cultures but perfectly obvious and natural in others. The classic ritual of ringing a bell or sounding an air horn to signify a huge sales win comes to mind.
Culture legend Ed Schein describes culture as three layers of artifacts, values and assumptions. Importantly his definitions includes the word shared. Shared is a critical because it is only when these elements are shared that they become embedded inside an organization. Shared doesn’t have to be universally either – sub-cultures exist when the sharing occurs across a smaller sub-set like a team, function, department or geography.
I’ve always preferred more pithy definitions.
“Your culture can be defined by the worst behaviour tolerated by management.”
I love the honesty – and the insightful lived experience – of that definition. Take a moments pause and think about what’s tolerated where you work. Often what’s tolerated runs in direct conflict to those well-crafted words on that washroom poster or the motivational speeches at the All Staff.
The phenomenal leadership expert Niven Postma eloquently defines culture as
“What you celebrate, what you promote and what you tolerate”
Again, there’s deep insight into the human mind when you look at those three elements.
What do we celebrate as important around here? Is it winning at all costs, is it being kind to our colleagues, is it a shared vision and purpose to make the world a better place?
What do we promote? People who build great products, people who are liked and admired by their colleagues, people who have just stuck around longer than anyone else, is it one demographic more often than another?
What do we tolerate? People who are great salesmen and customer leads despite the bullying way they treat their internal team, People who cut questionable corners but get the product to market faster, People who shuffle paper or obfuscate in meetings but don’t ruffle any leadership feathers?
These are all wonderful dimensions to look at inside your organization. And that review inevitably leads to the classic culture definition most folks use:
“The way we do things around here”
All of these factors are important for sure. But to what end? Why do we care about the systems, the rituals, what gets tolerated or avoided?
Because they drive how organizations make decisions – or how organizations avoid making decisions
Strip everything else away and an organization is merely a collection of people making decisions every day.
Enormous and mission critical decisions like; should we enter that new market, should we release that product early, should we deploy AI even though we’re not sure what impact it will have, should we acquire that company even though our last merger wasn’t that great.
And tiny, seemingly insignificant decisions as well.
Should I invite Jane from Legal to this kickoff meeting, should I warn management about that incident or let someone else do it, should I talk to Jeremy about the comment he made on the Teams call we just had, should I share this fascinating Powerpoint or keep the info to myself.
Decisions made.
Decisions avoided or kicked down the road for another day, another month, another quarter.
Big one’s and small.
Made consciously and often unconsciously.
Decisions made because it felt safe to do so “around here”.
Decisions avoided because it would be a career-limiting move.
Decisions that advance or accelerate your business strategy in leaps and bounds.
Decisions that bring your momentum to a grinding halt.
Your culture is many things and has multiple dimensions, some concrete, some invisible, but it really comes down to one singular thing.
How our people make decisions.
What decisions do your people feel they can safely make in your culture today?
What decisions are they avoiding because it isn’t safe to do so?
Maybe it is time we obsessed a little less about the washroom posters and the fosball tables in the canteen.