The Culture Conundrum

Instead of Trying to Change Culture - Celebrate Culture

People frequently ask the question - how can we successfully change our culture? My two questions back to them always are: 

1) How would you define the current company culture?  

2) Why do you want to change the culture? 

The real question is - why don’t you celebrate your culture and change the way things are getting done?  The typical reply is ‘what do you mean?” It’s simple - you can’t change the culture because you will it to change. The culture is rooted in the history, normative behaviours, rituals, legends of your company. Collectively, these culminate in defining the company values.

 Ask yourself, before the current or the last few leaders, what was the employee experience? What was the culture? The reply usually is something along the lines of “it was excellent, and people miss it.” My response is, focus on ‘back to the future celebration of the values, norms, rituals and events that initially made the company great.

One word of advice. The culture is how you treat one another internally. The employee experience created by the conduct of one person to the other, from senior managers to the frontline, determines how the customer-facing employees will treat your customers. It all cascades from the top - down. When articulating the company values and the culture, you should not design them, including the customers and the shareholders or the Board of Directors.  Values guide how the leadership and the employees interact and how employees will, in turn, interact with the outside world. The truth is that companies have a set of values upon which the culture is based, stated or not. The issue for “needing” to change the culture stems from the company’s inability to define and articulate its authentic values.

How do people communicate?  What is the direction of the communication? Is it top-down or collaborative? How do highly successful individuals make decisions? How do leaders and others respond to mistakes? How is information shared, and by whom and to whom?  

Through the observation and definition of behaviours for success, you can decode the values. Often, in doing this exercise, you find the posters on the wall are really only décor, only aspirational. The authentic culture is not captured.

The values, be they overtly demonstrated or not, are the essence of the culture. When the company is successful, executing the business strategy, retaining employees, and making money, regardless of the values, is the right culture.  When a new strategy is created, how do we ensure that the strategy will cause the employee to maintain the values, celebrate the values that will help the company move forward? We often see that a strategy change equates to a change in values and vision or purpose.  When was the last time someone awoke and announced, “I changed my entire belief system and acted differently than ever before?”

Many culture change efforts are not successful—only annoying employees and costing the company significant time and expenses.  There are also cases of how companies turned around only by taking the values on a “back to the future journey.”

When I was a school principal, I understood that the school’s authentic culture was hidden in the walls and came to life in the teacher’s room, the conversations in the hallways, and the conditions of the restrooms.  To learn the culture, you need only to speak to the school custodian.  The custodian was the informal school culture guru. They always knew what was behind closed doors, who the leaders were, who the followers were, and how people, students, and parents would get along.

The advice I have is to evolve your company culture but slowly and start with what you currently have. Consider these companies, which also prove the research that strong cultures build enduring employee experiences which, in turn, make for healthy business results and cash flow. A few values-based companies are Procter & Gamble. For many companies, such as Home Depot, Massachusetts General Hospital, Southwest Airlines, Apple, Tata, Starbucks, and FedEx, their competitive advantage is their culture, attracting and retaining employees.

The Blame Game

I frequently hear that it is our culture that is holding us back. If we change our culture, we will eliminate our problems. Culture has become the scapegoat for corporate misses and failures. The second popular excuse is that culture is the reason we are not innovative. The company looks around at the best practices of successful companies and tries to transplant its foreign culture. Eventually, the organization rejects the outside culture and, like a rubber band, snaps back to the way it was.

Since culture is an intangible and soft skill, we need to have human resources, organizational development, talent management, or communications act as the culture champions. While the textbooks say it is intangible, it is not. It is very tangible.  While the Human Resources team can help define the behaviours, those behaviours have to be role modelled in all decisions and, with consistency, form the top.

If the leaders’ role models the desired values-based behaviours and holds their direct reports accountable for doing the same, the entire organization eventually lives the values. What is often forgotten is employees are looking up to see what is coming down. When the behaviours cascading down are not what the leaders say they are, the employees become cynical, and retention is a problem. Remember, the only ‘asset’ that can leave and not return is your employee.

The Shareholders are not part of the culture.

The issue frequently is the Board of Directors, upset with the failing stock price, think the remedy is Directors undertake to change the CEO to reenergize the company’s performance.       Shareholders benefit from the leadership decision that is rooted in the long-standing culture of success. The power of the shareholder over the leadership comes when leaders acquiesce to the Boards. It is not a legal issue but one of tradition that has to stop. Boards have to look for long-term success and not hit-and-run wins.

Getting Back to the Future Works

Recognize that the culture, before the onslaught of various CEOs and before the current Board, was a culture of success. If not, the company would not have once been profitable with proud employees whom they retained.  

First, acknowledge what the authentic values are that propelled the company to success. Understand how, over time, the behaviours of those values evolved.  Come to terms with the gap between today’s behaviours and the behaviours upon which the company was successful. Getting ‘back to the future is the roadmap for success. For example, the US Marines came into being in 1775 under the leadership of Samuel Nichols. After the Revolution, the Corps disbanded until reforming in 1798.  The Marine Corps values of Honour, Courage and Commitment, and the behaviours that define these values today can be traced back to the 1770s.

By the mid-1980s, and many leaders later, the Marines had a very different culture in place. Instead of blaming the issue on recruiting or lack of public or Congressional support, the newly appointed Marine commander realized that the very foundation of the Corp had eroded. He looked to recapture the culture that initially made the Marine Corp everything it came to be.   He focused on demonstrating the behaviours of the values without mentioning the values. He set an example at the top and held his next in command accountable for the same.  Soon the Marines returned to the behaviours that lead them into battle and life outside of the military.  General Al Gray took the Marines back to when there was not a feeling of commander and subordinate but instead that of teacher and student. People observed that Gray’s culture renewal was executed with the “tenacity of a bulldog.” Eventually, by focusing on the concept of caring about people you are privileged to lead, the Marines returned to the culture that once made them great. 

To achieve this for your company, you need to review the early statements of values, compare them to the current values, and ask the question; what would it be like working here if we re-established our values?  Why did we stray from the values? How do we get back to our greatness? What are the words that express these values in behaviours today? 

Second, when beginning the journey, find the values champions. These are the employees who already live the behaviours of the values. Values champions are found at all levels of the company. The leader needs to meet with them and stay connected to them. The leaders have to praise them for sending a strong signal to the rest of the employees.  It is much more likely that when both the C-Suite and the culture champions live value behavioural, there will be a positive impact on the culture being reignited.  Not everyone is going to do the right action, at first, every time.  Instead of claiming the values to be aspirational, acknowledge that you did the wrong thing at one point and are now taking corrective action. Remember that when the desired action is consciously repeated and recognized as the correct way of acting, it becomes contagious.

Third, ensure that you establish a detailed process for new hires and promotions that measures proper alignment to the values. Also, ensure that the recognition of performance for success is not measured by achieving the KPI but by actually living and demonstrating the company’s true values. To engrain the values' behaviours, they have to be mutually understood throughout all levels of the company.

Fourth, find your corporate legends; these are the stories that exemplify living the values. There is nothing more potent than the sharing of stories. Oral history is what propelled society before the advent of writing. The oral history of a family makes for fascinating ways of learning about the family history and what is expected as a family member. Your company employees also pay attention to the stories they hear. Find the stories that are expressions of the desired values.  Corporate legends become potent tools in engaging people to stay the course. The stories are also a compelling means of attracting new employees and reinforcing the values during onboarding.  

A Roadmap to Success

The positive experience for employees leads to a positive experience for customers.

Remember, through the celebration of your culture, employees feel enabled to make the new strategy successful. Celebrate your values and culture and evolve them when required, but never carte blanche introduces new values and a new culture. That is a recipe for disaster. Keep in mind it is a positive and robust culture that got you here today and will continue to move you to where you want to be.  Remember that no two companies, even in the same industry and geographic location, will have the same behaviours and, therefore, the same culture. Do not imitate a company culture because it is perceived as a successful organization. Build your own genuine culture.

1.     Celebrate your culture. Begin by finding how the culture and values originally made the company successful. Observe how those values and behaviours have been abandoned or modified and ask the question leaders and employees - “what would be getting back to those values mean and what behaviours best exemplify living the values?” 

2.     Model the behaviours from the top. Ensure all members of the leadership team are aligned and live the values every day.

3.     Find the values champions you have that reside all over the company and give them recognition 

4.     Ensure you define the consequences, positive and negative, for living or not living the value behaviours. Ensure that the values are socialized and the meaning of the values and the behaviours are relevant in each department and at each level of the company.  For example, the value of innovation in research and development will not be understood the same way as in government regulation or finance

5.     Ensure you limit the number of values and the number of behaviours that define each value. Our experience indicates the top end of the number of values is five, but fewer are better. Also, the universal values of respect, trust, integrity and the like will be an outcome of living the values. Define the values as to what makes your company culture special. 

6.     Integrate the values and their behaviours into every aspect of talent management.  

Most importantly, during times of change, our values get us through to the other side. They are the foundation for right and wrong. The values are the everyday actions that make meaning out of life.  In short, the values that are authentic and long-standing for your company will enable the change in strategy you desire. Human beings crave predictability. The values are the anchor for the predictability of decision-making and treating one another.  People need predictability to feel psychologically safe.

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Please reshare this article and contact me if you wish to chat. Those who know me know I'm open to sharing and asking tough questions. I always learn so much from the questions people ask and the exchange that follows. Please read my book Inside the Box for a more in-depth read on values, culture and leadership as a competitive advantage, please read my book Inside the Box.