Culture is dead, long live culture!

Values, practices, mindset and behaviours are at the deep root of a company’s culture. As a consequence, making a team’s spirit come to birth and thrive is a prerequisite to scale it at the company’s size… or fail and die slowly.

A common definition of culture by Maurice Godelier is the “set of principles, representations and values shared by the members of a society, and organizing their way of thinking and act in their environment”. One used to assume culture was only the privilege of societies, in a social meaning. However, since the 1980s, leaders (finally) realized that businesses are societies on their own, with proper principles and values. Culture is actually a major part of a company’s DNA, playing a leading role in the business’ strategy, as well as in the acquisition and retention of new talents. Not to mention the importance of corporate culture to attract the famous millennials!

Take your business, and add a giant portion of culture to get your teams together around a common, strong project shining bright both internally and externally. What does it take to make your company more than just financially successful? People. Human capital. Your cooperators and their feeling of belonging are your organization’s most precious asset. It is not only about you and them, or you and the success of your project: It is about embodying your values, your practices and the culture you're claiming. Telling is great, doing is far better.

Don’t get me wrong: culture is not only about adhering to pre-existing values. No. Most of all, culture is a progressive and common building, whose recipe is unique and very specific to your company. Do not even try to copy and paste it from any other existing model. I can already tell you it won’t work.

Moreover, millennials are more than ever the keystone of this building. Nowadays, you don’t only want to set your employees together, but also attract and keep new talents to make them thrive and reach their full potential. And what are these new talents looking for, apart from a dream job and an attractive package? I bet you’ll never guess: they want to feel they belong to a family. They’re searching for a team, values, and an atmosphere they can blossom in, professionally speaking… And personally as well. Indeed, as the border between private and professional matters become thinner than ever, companies are facing a new challenge: empowering their talents so that they can bloom in both domains. That’s why, at Wemanity, we favour and treasure this mindset, and are deeply committed to one of our mottos: “Work is not a job”.

Don’t expect immediate benefits or consequences. Culture is a long-winded affair. It has to be built, shaped, raised, as a team project and ambition. You can’t neither decide nor buy it, ‘cause it needs efforts, patience and team spirit to get its full dimension. Therefore, you can’t ask for an immediate or quick ROI. You’d better include this project in a (very) long term perspective.

At Wemanity, our why, our values, and our mission have been decided by no one else than our teams, who challenge them every time they feel the need to. We are so proud of this project, which binds us together, which constitutes our greatest strength, which is chosen by newcomers. They are part and parcel of our DNA and give birth to our ecosystem’s culture. We say it out loud: the future of work will be collective… or will never be. As from now, culture is a matter of life and death.

What about you? Are you ready to grasp the nettle? 

Jean-Christophe Conticello