Culture, that subtle force

Last weekend my eldest son came back from France after a year of studying in Paris. As we were catching up on the latest news, I noticed small changes in the way he would express himself or the words he would choose. I could not point to a specific characteristic, but I realized my son has turned into a true Parisian. I suppose this is how culture works: it influences subtly our behaviors and thoughts.

It made me think about the culture of the companies I worked for in the past. Most had strong human values associated with meritocracy, but each one has a different approach on how to convey it, some would have their values expressed everywhere from the office walls to their website, while others would convey it only through induction or 1 to 1 and finally some would do no active communication on it. Not surprisingly, the companies that had the best performance, were the ones that had a clearer communication on their culture.

The easiest part to pick up in company culture is the dress code: very quickly you see how other employees dress and you can align. Although it is sometimes difficult to understand what is acceptable in casual circumstances when the guidance might be a bit more blurred: Friday wear, parties, Halloween… I remember once coming to a Halloween party dressed in a very scary sorcerer while everyone was dressed in funny disguises... although that might just have been a Canadian thing.

The second thing we usually learn quickly is the jargon, the specific words, and acronyms that the company uses in their normal business: I saw sales being called jobs, deals, units… and sometimes these words might mean something different in previous companies like for instance “work ethic”. Usually, it is easy to get to know these words in the first weeks of working in a new place, simply because they are used a lot and if you are slightly curious you will ask the meaning of an acronym you do not understand. In a previous company, we created a bingo with our terminology. Newcomers will try it at the end of their induction to check that they understood all the concepts or if they need further explanations.

The most complicated part of the culture is really the behaviors, values, and expectations. Is the communication formal or informal? Does your company nurture an open-door policy, or do you need to go through layers of appointments to meet someone? Is information transparent or compartmentalized? Is it ok to fail? Is it a solution-oriented or a blaming organization? What about innovation, is it OK to test new ideas or are they very conservative or averse to risk? Is it result-oriented (outcome) or more process-oriented (output)? How do they approach time (work hours, deadlines)? How are decisions taken? How are differences of opinion perceived?

These are only some of the cultural questions you will be confronted with in a new company. Some of these traits are general to the whole company, while others might be specific to certain departments or managers. The variety of cultures in the same company will depend on the number of hierarchical layers and the involvement of the executive team in its communication. Like a “broken telephone”, the CEO and executive might have the same vision, but then it might get diluted at each next level of management.

This is when Executives start organizing town halls, walking the floor, and casually interacting with other employees. A previous boss came once with the “blueberry-muffin” idea after watching Ocean 11. In that movie the Casino owner (Robert de Niro) realizes that some muffins had a lot of blueberries while others had almost none, so he speaks to the cook to be sure that customer service excellence is followed everywhere. So, our executive team started tracking the number of blueberry-muffin discussions they had with any team to realign expectations and culture. At this point, we found that it was important that any Executive should speak up if he witnessed a situation that required redirection and independently of which team it was.

Managers have a great responsibility to transmit the company culture to their teams and therefore you will see as many flavors as you have managers. The farther or the less interaction you have with the headquarter and the more your culture will vary. I noticed that a lot when working in different international subsidiaries of the same company: the approach to performance and client experience would vary a lot.

And here is one of my personal findings of culture: the closely you think your culture is and the most chance you will have a cultural shock. That is what happened to me when I moved from Portugal to Brazil. I am fluent in Portuguese and lived 7 years in Brazil as a child, so I let my guard down and was very quickly surprised by how colleagues will interact with each other. On the other hand, when I moved to Mozambique, I was prepared that the culture would be very different, so instead of a shock, I had a lot of “aha” moments.

The country culture will also affect the local flavor of the company culture. Some cultures are more direct, more formal, more open. Some do not like conflict or would not contradict authority. I was raised in a very methodic and analytical culture, with very direct communication, so when I start working in Spain I was perceived as rude when writing emails and had to learn how to say the same things with more diplomacy.

Although I have been working most of my life in international locations, it is really when I arrived in Canada that I have been confronted with multi-cultural teams. In my previous roles, I was the outsider, and it was upon me to adapt. But in Canada, I had at some point a team with more than 11 different nationalities. So not only I had to adapt, but also, I had to be the bridge between cultures. I remember one manager that was never transmitting my message to his team because, in his culture, conflict was not well seen, even if it was constructive feedback.

So how do you get your company to live its culture? The most evident is to speak about it. Have it clear in your external and internal communication, in your hiring process, and your induction programs! Be sure to speak about it frequently at each level of the company, align your performance and development programs to your values. Some companies would even have their motto, or their values written on their walls. Lead by example, recognize your values’ champion. Connect with your employees in informal discussions. If your values are strong, they will transcend the limited space of your work and affect your employee’s life outside the organization and attract other like-minded people.

And if you are new to a company, ask a lot of questions about it? Ideally as early as the interview process to see if you will fit in the new organization. But once in it, a good source would be HR or the manager that hired you or even your colleagues. They might be able to explain some of the expectations and internal politics. Contrast your finding with several people to be sure that it is not biased.

Culture affects your team engagement, getting as many employees aligned to it ensures that you improve your team and company performance.

And for you, what is the trickiest part of learning a new company culture?

Remi Vogel is currently VP of Finance for Peninsula Employment Services in Canada. He loves coaching, mentoring, and nurturing finance teams professionals into managers. He has successfully done so for 20+ years in 8 different countries.