Debunking Culture Myths
Blair - CultureXP | 5 min read
Our business world has hit the reset button.
What has become apparent in only a short time is the playbook that has guided businesses and CEO’s for the last 40 years is broken. As leaders, we have a responsibility to learn, reimagine and do the right things to help our businesses reinvent themselves and come out healthier.
Funky home office makeovers may have been the winner during the forced lockdown, but this is not the only good thing to emerge. We can bounce forward, not backwards by co-designing and implementing meaningful “survive to thrive” business strategies. Strategies that create the right workplace for your employees to reinvent themselves within your Company. Companies that nail this will be remembered by their employees and be the envy of others long after COVID-19.
Strategy and Culture are among the primary levers at top leaders’ disposal. Your Culture is real and being more thoughtful and intentional, now more than ever, is the right thing to do. If simply debunking a few Culture myths challenges and helps your thinking, then we will chalk this up as another good thing.
Culture’s all that invisible stuff that glues organizations together. Your Culture is visible. An act of kindness to an employee will stay with them and their family forever. Acts of kindness can go viral with just a click. But this is not why you do it. You choose to do it because you know it is the right thing to do, and nothing comes close to the feeling of being a good human. The same goes for reinventing a policy that embraces work/life integration and spreads the message that family comes first. If you choose to run your business like Hamdi Ulukaya – CEO of Chobani, you would be playing your part in redesigning the CEO playbook. Your Culture story will be visible to the world for all the right reasons.
Company Culture Trumps Strategy. I love my Culture world, but I have yet to experience a company succeed without a strategy.
The people own the Culture and can drive culture change. The people do own the Culture, but it is challenging to drive culture change if your CEO does not support, live, and breathe the company culture. The C in CEO stands for Culture. Just ask Satya Nadella – CEO of Microsoft and Tony Hsieh – CEO of Zappos.
Culture is all that fluffy stuff. Research has identified that on average, Culture has eight times more impact on your business results than the strategy itself. But you cannot just lean on Culture. Both Strategy and Culture need to work together and head in the right direction to enable your people to work to their natural best and deliver your business strategy. This is not fluff, it is a call to arms.
Employees are leaving – our Culture must be broken. There is an art in doing exit interviews, and we like to dig deeper to understand what the stats are really revealing. Meaning and just cause (purpose) are more critical in the workplace now than ever. The majority of people we meet, crave meaning and just cause in their work. But for the minority, without it, engagement and job satisfaction take a massive hit. Your Culture is not broken if the people leaving are not engaged, and non-believers of the Company just cause. More so if they are not living and breathing the values and behaviours of the Company Culture. A better story is helping the people find their next right fit, and if they leave, they do so with dignity. We have yet to come across an employee who does not want to go to work and do good.
Company Culture is not a competitive advantage. Culture, when positioned as a strategic foundation rather than an afterthought in the People Strategy, is a competitive differentiation strategy. Culture is what attracts, retains, and grows the most essential part of a business – your people. It is the difference between attracting talent that is willing to make their next workplace a home rather than a flat. Having a healthy and vibrant culture goes beyond employees to customers, shareholders, boards, partners, and investors. We will happily share our story in helping an award-winning local NZ company achieved this. Doing this over coffee, say no more.
Our employee engagement is healthy because our annual employee satisfaction results are elevated. At CultureXP, we use surveys, and they have a time and place in the Culture journey. However, we encourage leaders to create an authentic connection with their people and not lean on the employee satisfaction results. Ryan from Culture of Good says employee engagement thrives in a culture of trust, vulnerability, and belonging because it is embedded into our human DNA. This is achieved when leaders care enough for each person to take the time to sit down with them and listen. I like Ryan’s thinking, and this is how Culture should be.
Office design improves Company Culture. Pool & table tennis tables, sleep pods, gaming stations, slides between floors, design studios, do not disturb spaces and barista’s on tap? If your culture style is “Playful” or one of your core values is “Fun” these office design elements support your Culture. But it does not define it – your Culture style does. But having a cool office is not what is needed now. We need to channel our energy in helping people kit out their home workspace and make it easier to embrace work/life integration. We have proved through our ways of working (WoW) concept that people can work remotely and still create and be part of, an award-winning Company Culture.
Thanks for reading my blog. Our world is better when we share, and I would love to hear your insights and stories. I am also a big fan of coffee. So, if you want to connect and explore how we might be able to help each other and create great workplaces, say no more. Let’s make this a happening thing.
At CultureXP, our inspiration comes from the people around us, what we see and the experiences we live. We are a curious and creative bunch, continually learning and remixing ideas from all walks of life. Sharing the idea ancestry is essential to us. Thank you, Ryan McCarty at Culture of Good.