The Culture Killer

I haven't written an article in some time - probably because I have been pretty busy, and the world is chaotic enough without my thoughts spilling out into it in written form...!

However, a few times in the past weeks I have been made to think about what represents a truly good and strong culture nowadays...a good culture to the DNA, marrow deep, beyond a placard or values printed on cards. I have had the great fortune to attend some training on leadership with Dan Haesler, and so many fantastic insights came out - not just in the session but in conversation afterwards.

I just want to focus on one thing, today. It's something that I personally find a struggle when I encounter it, and I'll be vulnerable and talk about the "why". However, it's one of those things where knowing the "why" doesn't change the outcome - because you have to accept in this world of ours that so, so much of the outcome is contingent, as the old movie saying goes, on the "kindness of strangers." Let me try and talk you through the "what" and "why", and the outcome it leads to.

Start With...

So...the "why", which I'll preface with the "what" just to be extra helpful. How many of us have talked about collaboration being the key to growth, transformation, alignment, commercial success, and employee engagement and retention? How many of us have seen it in culture presentations, workshops on collaboration, best practice? Maybe it would help to have the definition for collaboration (thank you to dictionary.cambridge.org):

the situation of two or more people working together to create or achieve the same thing

We can't really argue with the source of the definition can we! There is something missing here though. There are two things implied here, with those two or more people all working together...the first, that the thing they are seeking to achieve is the same (and really, really the same); and the second, that these people all working together are doing it in the same way. They're sharing at a very fundamental level. They're trusting each other to contribute and collaborate (that word again), and they support each other in the endeavour.

On that second point, perhaps it is an obvious element for collaboration, but it is also one that is overlooked, ignored, or misused. Sometimes, collaborative behaviour in one can be construed by another as interference, and cause defensiveness. But more often than not, those several people working together don't all show up in the same way. Some people will lean in and share fully; some will test the water and then duck away at the first opportunity. But many will not engage at all.

The reason for there being so many in that final group is the first implication - that people are all looking to achieve the same thing. There might be an expressed business outcome that is desired and the target on the screen - but when people leave that presentation, is it a shared objective - or is the shared objective to do it for the people in the team they work in? Or in a specific way? Or, even worse, to make sure that another team doesn't do it? For instance, a big client win - does everyone working together on it leave the room saying "I don't care if it's my name in lights, we just need to win and I'll do what it takes as part of the team"? Or do they leave the room with a filter and their own agenda?

Now let's get vulnerable.

I've encountered this a lot in my professional life - and to be frank, it always leaves me a bit flat. This is my vulnerable moment BTW! It leaves me flat because I do lean in - but to lean in means you do leave yourself exposed to feel let down by others. And, fundamentally, it puts your guard up for the next time. The trick is to constantly challenge yourself to lower those guards and take a chance - and, also, to accept that you can't control others. The only thing you are responsible for is how you show up - and as imperfect a collaboration is at might be with separate behaviours and agendas at play, you have to take the chance. A culture without trust is a killer of engagement, we all accept that. But we all have to try and turn up with trust and authenticity anyway.

Because, imagine if collaboration with that level of trust happened. What would THAT be like?