Corporate culture is a set of written and unwritten rules, principles, and logic that an employee relies on at a time when is not “bound” by control (for example, whether a person will violate traffic rules if there are no traffic cameras is determined by person's culture).
In most cases, employees perceive the existing corporate culture as a set of symptoms that encounter every day (closed communication, low performance, hushing up problems, etc.)
The corporate "operating system" / "coordinate system" / "driving rules" (choose your abstraction) is a framework for the corporate culture, in which the foundation is "hardwired" of what is right/wrong, good/bad, allowed/forbidden, and so on.
I'll try to summarise 8 key requirements for the optimal and reliable corporate operating system:
- Mandatory compliance - for everyone (Full confidence that everyone "drives by the same rules")
- Clarity of description (Describe the elements in such a way as to exclude inconsistencies)
- Transparency (All elements of the system are visible, there are no hidden/mysterious ones)
- Consistency of origin (Any element must have a clear, logical argument “why it is so”. With this approach, it is easier to agree with the rule. For example, in traffic rules it is clear “why you cannot cross a double solid line”, etc.)
- Harmonization (There should be no contradictions between the elements of the system. Otherwise, an employee will be guided by their own interests and common sense. An example is again from the traffic rules - it shouldn't be a situation when the driver looks at traffic signs, not understanding what is really required)
- Sufficiency (Elements of the operating system should provide employees with an understanding of how to act in 90-95% of situations - that is, in a significant part of standard questions)
- Relevance (Sometimes new market requirements or company size suggest that something needs to be changed in the system - an update is needed. And if the system is outdated, then it starts to break the business, entering into an “entropic relationship” with it)
- Fractality (Assumes that at each level of the system (in each branch / on each floor / in each division) there is something in common)
And what do you think is the best way to build an optimal and reliable corporate operating system?
