Beyond the Buzzwords: Creating a Meaningful Culture Playbook

Despite strong evidence linking culture to business success , many employees still roll their eyes at the mention of 'values' or 'culture'.

It's hard to blame them.

The way?culture is often described in formal documents like "culture decks" or "culture playbooks" often comes off as a bunch of platitudes, cliches, or half-truths.

This doesn't mean that codifying your culture is pointless. It simply means that it has to be done well. Let's start with clarifying what a Culture Playbook is.

What exactly is a Culture Playbook?

A Culture Playbook is a document that describes who you are and what you stand for as a collective. Some companies call it their "culture deck" or their "culture code".

Netflix created one of the most well-known culture decks of the past decades. In our conversation on The CultureLab Podcast , Patty McCord attributed a large part of Netflix's success to the process of codifying its culture and capturing it in the culture deck.

In my view, a good culture playbook describes your desired culture and consists of the following elements:

• Purpose
• Core values
• Core desired feelings
• A stunning colleague manifesto
• A great leader manifesto

You can download my Culture Playbook Guide HERE .

When things go wrong

It's important to keep in mind that creating a Culture Playbook can be a double-edged sword. When done well, it can be a?powerful asset that clarifies company values, informs decision-making, and drives business success. When done poorly, it can breed cynicism and undermine performance.

In my experience, there are three reasons why a culture deck may quickly turn into... a culture wreck:

1. Resorting to a “cookie-cutter” approach when defining the desired culture.
2. Failing to engage the entire organisation in the process of uncovering the company’s cultural DNA.
3. A disconnect between the desired culture and what the business needs.

In this article, I want to share three strategies to avoid the above pitfalls and create a meaningful, perennial Culture Playbook that will serve your organisation for years to come.

1. Look for what makes you different and uniquely capable of executing your strategy

Researchers from Booz Allen Hamilton and Aspen Institute’s Business and Society Program found that most companies espouse almost identical values:

• 90% reference ethical behaviour and use the word "integrity".
• 88% mention commitment to customers.
• 76% cite teamwork and trust.

Are the above values important? Sure. But the problem is that they could be a potential fit for ANY company. And that's precisely why they should be avoided.

Generic values are merely a licence to play. Your core values, however, should be idiosyncratic enablers of your mission and vision.

In other words, your values should signal how you differ from other companies in your industry.

Here's why this is so important:

As humans, we are genetically programmed to form tight-knit communities with a strong sense of uniqueness, connectedness, and belonging.

Our brains are wired to look for how our tribe differs from other tribes. It's our way of ensuring the survival of our species. Without unique, strong, stand-out values, we lose our ability to develop a true sense of belonging.

Our need to be a part of a unique tribe is just as important in the workplace as it is in our personal lives. Generic values don't inspire a sense of community, nor do they help execute strategy or attract and retain top talent.

Your values should also be uniquely positioned to help you drive business results and execute your strategy. They are not a nice-to-have; they need to be a must-have when it comes to what's required to bring your vision to life.

Identify those elements of your culture that make you stand out and that drive your strategy and business objectives. Your values are meant to be idiosyncratic enablers, not cookie-cutter cliches.

2. Engage the entire organisation in the process of codifying your desired culture

Creating a Culture Playbook that describes the most powerful, idiosyncratic enablers of your mission and vision can't be achieved by a handful of people participating in a Senior Leadership retreat. You have to engage the entire organisation in the process.

Tapping into the hive mind of your entire organisation and harnessing the collective wisdom of your employees will help you to develop a culture that reflects the authentic values, beliefs and behaviours that are important to your business.

Interviews

To engage your employees in the process of codifying your culture, you can start by interviewing people from various parts of your organisation.

For the best representation, make sure that the people you interview are a diverse group of individuals from all parts of the organisation and all hierarchical levels.

The data you collect from the interviews will be a valuable source of information when you are ready to start crafting your Culture Playbook and creating a snapshot of your current culture.

Storytelling

You can also encourage employees to share stories and examples of behaviours that they believe represent the desired culture. I have developed a process called the Fireside CHAT, that enables companies to capture the narrative backbone of their culture in a fun and interactive event.

Here are the main stages of the process:

You can read more about the types of stories to collect to codify your company culture HERE .

While you want to engage the entire organisation in the process, there are two groups to pay particular attention to:

Working with the Culture Squad

The Culture Squad is a group of individuals that can reliably represent their colleagues and work with you on codifying and activating your desired culture.

In a scale-up, the best size for this group is 10-12 individuals. To pick the right individuals, look for people who are:

• Social hubs (well-connected with colleagues across the organisation)
• Role models (trusted by their colleagues both on account of their skills and expertise and their integrity and the way they embody your desired culture)

The Culture Squad is a group that will be actively engaged in codifying your culture at each stage of the process. They will also be your biggest allies when it comes to activating and embedding your culture code.

Working with the Senior Leadership Team

Last but not least, you will need to work with the entire SLT. Their role is to give the context for the whole exercise and identify your company's:

• Purpose
• Mission
• Vision

3. Align your Culture Playbook with what your business truly needs to be successful

The essence of the art of creating a relevant Culture Playbook is zooming in on those cultural attributes that will make you and your people successful now and in the future. Not all of the cultural attributes identified through your interviews and storytelling should make it to the final version of your Culture Playbook.

A good exercise to run with your people is the old, good START, STOP KEEP. Ask people to anonymously answer these three questions:

1. START - What are the currently missing mindsets, practices, beliefs and assumptions that we'll need to develop to thrive in the future and to bring our vision to life?
2. STOP - What are the currently existing mindsets, practices, beliefs and assumptions that no longer serve us and that we need to leave behind to thrive in the future and to bring our vision to life?
3. KEEP - What are the currently existing mindsets, practices, beliefs and assumptions that we need to preserve and nourish to thrive in the future and to bring our vision to life?

Final thoughts

The three strategies that I shared will help you create a perennial Culture Playbook, which will be an indispensable tool for your organisation when it comes to recruitment, onboarding, driving performance and more.

Creating a Culture Playbook is not a one-time task. It should be seen as a living document that evolves over time as your organization grows and changes. Encourage your employees to provide feedback on the playbook and to suggest areas where it could be improved.

By making the Culture Playbook a collaborative effort, you can identify areas that need improvement and make changes accordingly. This approach also ensures that the playbook remains relevant and useful for employees, which helps to maintain a strong culture over the long term.

If you want to learn more about this approach and become an accredited practitioner of this methodology, check out our Codifying Company Culture Accreditation Program HERE .