Culture eats WFH for breakfast! How about lunch and dinner?

I'm sure you've heard of the famous quote from Peter Drucker "Culture eats strategy for breakfast". Having built startups and managing teams, I have found this to be very true. I'd go to the extent of saying that the secret sauce keeping both employees and customers happy is in fact the culture.

When he said that culture eats strategy for breakfast, Drucker pointed out the importance of the human factor in any company. No matter how detailed and solid your strategy is, if the people executing it don't nurture the appropriate culture, your projects will fail.

Culture isn't about comfy chairs and happy hours at the office. Rather, it's more about the ways your employees act in critical situations, how they manage pressure and respond to various challenges, and how they treat partners and customers, and each other.

I get asked often by clients about how we manage this change to remote work during the pandemic without affecting our corporate culture. Granted that very few companies had embraced remote work before the pandemic. They were afraid of poor communication, disengagement, stalled advancement etc. There is a clear difference between WFH and Remote work, which is the conscious decision to introduce remote work into organizations and not because of external factors.?

Forbes already published in May 2020 that a California-based company has measured an increase in worker productivity by 47%. According to a study by Indeed for employers (HR services) already 2018 done in states that 75% of the people asked said that working remotely has improved their work-life balance.

By not working in an on-site office means lower workplace distraction, increased flexibility, reduced operational costs and reduced expenses for employees.?

How Do Culture And Strategy Work Together In A Business?

If not based on the right values, culture eats strategy for lunch (as well as breakfast). In a perfect scenario, culture and strategy complement and nurture each other.?Culture?and?strategy?should be created simultaneously,?ensuring?they are perfectly aligned. When in sync, they enable each other to create incredible organizational transformations.

When you're aware of the true culture of your business, it is easy to create a strategic business plan because you're familiar with all the factors. Think of culture as a landscape on which you execute your strategic plan. A walk on pavement takes less time and energy than climbing through a mountain pass.

If?you?apply?a?realistic?perspective?to?your?strategy?plan,?you?will?have?a?greater?chance?of?being?successful.?Knowing?your?team's?culture?is?a?valuable?resource?when?planning?a?strategy. Culture and strategy make a powerful duo when combined perfectly, and you should always incorporate both in your plans if you want your vision to succeed.

How To Implement a Healthy Culture In Your Office

If you're worried that culture is eating strategy at your company, you need to consider implementing a different, healthy culture in the office.?

Here are some ways you can use to start nurturing a company culture that leads to growth:

Ask questions

Conduct a survey and encourage your employees to be open about the things they would change in the company. Ask them what they would like to see in the future and work on making their perfect future career fit in with your company's vision.

Develop a solid vision

All of your employees need to know where the company is going and how their work contributes to your business vision. If your organization has no clear vision, no defined values, and no sense of direction, you're nurturing inadequate culture.

Celebrate small wins on the way to success

Employees will adopt a culture that makes them feel passionate and enthusiastic about your goals if you show them how all short-term wins matter because they lead to the achievement of your long-term vision.

Developing a healthy culture is much more than having defined values and a vision.