4 Signs of Culture Window Dressing

The start of a new calendar year provides an opportunity for organisations and teams to be more intentional around building a great place to work. This means devoting time, effort and money to redefining the conditions for success or providing managers with the skills on how to do this.

When leaders make building a great culture a priority then - as all the research shows - they will be rewarded with motivated people who are dedicated to doing what’s best for the team such that it can achieve its results.

I’ve just run my first culture workshop of the year and one of the attendees said to me that it was the perfect way to start the year. She said she felt an immediate connection not only to the people around her, but also to the organisation as a whole and the growth aspirations that it had.

By taking the time to define and agree the culture, they have created the foundations on which this year's success can be built.

More often than not, however, organisations don’t invest in active culture building and resort to window dressing instead. That is, painting a picture - internally and externally (often on their ‘careers’ web pages or in annual reports) - that culture is a priority and one that is continually invested in, when the reality is quite the opposite.

For many employees, culture continues to be a word that they hear, yet their daily lived experience is a far cry from that being promoted externally.

Signs of culture window dressing include:

1. Values that aren’t valuesValues are statements that describe principles or standards of behaviour (e.g. Never Stop Learning, Be the Change You Seek etc.) which motivate people to take action. Single words (Collaboration, Integrity, Excellence etc.) aren’t values. At best they are an unimaginative attempt to tick a box that says ‘We have a set of values’. Also, values are meant to be lived not laminated and placed on a wall, or turned into a screensaver. If you have to remind people what the values are (or if senior leaders can’t immediately speak to why they are important to success), then they’re worthless.
2. Lists of how people should be behaveOften linked to badly written values, these will likely be complex Powerpoint slides that contain long lists of bullet points of how to demonstrate a particular behaviour e.g. ‘We will trust each other to do the right thing’. However, these lists are often too generic or provide no practical advice on how to change one’s behaviour. Worse still is when leaders or employees demonstrate the opposite of what’s expected and there’s no consequence for it.
3. Transformation picturesYou know, those pretty visual representations (often called a ‘journey’) that show where the organisation and its culture is today and where it intends to be in five years’ time? A skilled facilitator has done great work interpreting intentional words from managers but what’s rarely captured is the reality of too many meetings and emails, or the poor behaviours people will encounter that make the ‘journey’ unbearable.
4. An expendable learning and development program‘We’re committed to developing our people!’ is a statement that exists on many corporate websites. There will be stock pictures of a diverse group of smiling people who look delighted to be learning from one another. Unfortunately, most internal programs will focus on ‘mandatory’ learnings to protect the organisation’s reputation or address the poor behaviours of a few people or else a ‘leadership’ program for a special few employees. For most, the budget for continual culture or employee development will either be non-existent or cut at the slightest indication that targets may be missed.

Thankfully, a greater number of forward-thinking leaders now understand the need for meaningful work on defining culture. In one research report, 92% of CEOs recognised that improving their culture would increase company value; likewise, improving the employee experience is the number one priority for HR leaders.?

Switched-on leaders also recognise that employee attitudes have shifted and that in order to retain their best people and attract those that can further help them fulfil their ambitions, they must work hard to build a culture of belonging and respect. They also recognise that the media are actively looking for organisations that betray the cultures they portray and will rightly expose those that do.

The start of a new calendar year provides a perfect opportunity for organisations and teams to look at how they’ve dressed their culture and make the necessary changes to ensure that what’s on show is also pleasing to those that wear it.

Are you looking to turn positive cultural intention into demonstrable results? Every year, I work with a small number of organisations around the world to help them do just that.?

Contact Jules at [email protected] to arrange a free, no commitment, 40-minute call with Colin and we’ll produce a blueprint for you on the work you need to do to fill your culture gaps.