Be a Hero - or better yet be YOU!

Wrtiting allows me to dive deeper into perception and understanding. One wee niggle, as I look for my next piece of work, is how to I find out the culture of an organisation before I get there? How do I know I will have fun? How do I know I will fit? How do I know I will be successful?

Usually, in contract world, such frivolities of wanting to find a "good fit" take second place to keeping the bills paid. To that end you embark on a sales pitch - and, after all it is a numbers game, you make lots of contacts, lots of applications, burn up lots of time and focus. Then sometimes, you land lucky, and sometimes you do not.

So - maybe - this time around, maybe it's the years of experience, maybe it's just that it is more of a priority, maybe it's just that I feel I have a lot to offer. Whatever the reason this feels like something I want to spend a little bit of energy on.

So let's look back over time. After all - years and contracts appear to have mounted up - and there is a ready bank of experience to bring to the table and help understand what makes a good fit for me.

I look at the contracts, assignments, and teams, I have loved and enjoyed myself most at. The roles where I feel I have added value and those I feel I have failed to add value.

Before I jump in - I thought. What the hell do I even mean by culture and how the hell do I assess it?

What is Culture?

A good reference for such questions is to look to the worlds leading thinkers - and why not the interwebby is great. I found two people that I follow - here - Amy Edmondson and Adam Grant were both well mentioned and respected in my time at Novartis leading a data governance programme so what do they have to say about culture. They both focus on learning and psychological safety - but curiously Adam contrasts learning and performance cultures (must dig into that later - for me they can be the same).

"A fearless organization is one where people feel safe to speak up with ideas, questions, concerns, or mistakes. It is characterized by a culture of openness, where employees are not afraid to express their thoughts, and where failure is seen as an opportunity for learning rather than as something to be punished." ~ Amy Edmondson

She really focuses on the phrase fearless organisation - after all that is the name of her book The Fearless Organisation. What about Adam Grant what does he say?

"Culture is not how things are done around here; it’s how we treat people around here. It’s the habits, behaviors, and beliefs that shape interactions between people in an organization. To build a thriving culture, it’s important to foster generosity, where employees help one another not just because they have to, but because they want to. This leads to higher collaboration, trust, and performance." ~Adam Grant

Though I do prefer his analogy on scaffolding from Hidden Potential that encourages me to assess whether an organisation provides the right scaffolding to perform, be successful, realise your potential.

There is lots out there - acres of books and anecdotes - but all quite amorphous in a way. So what do I think of as culture and what have been the ones that most fit me.

What cultures have worked best for me?

Well this is easier - where do I feel I have performed best - and what were the features of these organisations that I liked? Note - I have only picked out the top here as there are around 30 or so cultures, from my experience, to choose from.

• Navy life - specifically small ships flight with a Lynx on a Frigate - small team of seven. I was not in a leadership role - unless you think of a "pinkie" or lead avionics technician as leadership but I was part of a great team and enjoyed it. Very much a good memory of knowing where you fit - trusting those around you - and feeling valued for you by the team. Feeling Valued - seems important.
• House of Commons - two roles to assess there and though the culture is, in many ways, resistant to change, I was supported by senior staff with my Boss ~Director General ~ being both quite old school and surprisingly compassionate. I enjoyed leading on the creation of a new reward system, developing policy - lots of intellectual debates, and leading on union negotiations - lots of listening and selling. Of course the best thing was seeing the team, I created, delivering a solution for the organisation that was accepted by the Management Board (invited back after I left to attend the session where the decision was made). Very much a good memory of great people, senior management engagement, support and challenge, and being encouraged. Feeling Supported (especially when challenge is hard) - seems important.
• Keir Construction - recommended by a friend I was placed into a failing transition - poor PM leading was not set up to deal with awful behaviours of big four consultancy assurance team, client wanted levels of documentation that were not appropriate to the speed of delivery, highly combatitive, ￡100m contract at risk, long days - 5am starts. YET. It was such a good experience, the straight talking, the honesty and energy of the directors from Kier - challenging but utterly supportive, the team ethos - everyone working hard - all competent and capable professionals, the client also had a few stars who helped change the culture of delivery. Client stood down consultancy assurance body two months in. Feeling connected, trusted, challenged directly with straight talkers, satisfaction in an real challenge overcome, feeling you were given the levers/tools to succeed.
• TPX Impact - delivery lead on three of their projects (utility and two government clients). Two performed well on - one not so well (the first one). What stands out? Autonomy, surrounded by experts, high energy, speed of decision making, access to deeper expertise if needed, and most of all active feedback and support. Feeling part of something with high energy, important socially impactful projects, encouraged, trusted to lead all key factors here.

I was trying to squeeze in three - everyone likes a wee list of three - but four stand out cultures for me that I want more of in the next role, client, contract, assignment. So what is the key things I want from my next role in terms of culture?

Key things I seek - cultural fit

It comes down to how I want to feel and you already have that list from above. In summary I want a culture that helps me feel this way: Valued, Supported, Connected, Trusted ... and I should add challenged (I like a challenge).

Well that helps me see what I need from my next role - what do I not want? That is the more important thing for me at times. If I do not get everything I like, mostly you do not, then how do you make sure you avoid the worst of contracts, the worst of cultures, the worst of working experience.

What do you want to avoid?

Well, as the title says, the worst thing I encounter is the cultures that feel great, at a working level, the cultures with great people, the cultures who are, mostly, quite immature and, yet, want performance beyond their mean.

These cultures - with great people, with significant problems, with immature systems, with high ambitions - usually have layers of culture. Layers of culture maybe for another article but if you have great people trying to do great things - but the decisions, strategic direction and leadership, always sets out environments where you need to be exceptional just to prevent failure. If you find these cultures - be wary.

If the need is to be exceptional just to avoid failure then be cautions. This can always be a short term need, in any project it is at some point important to be exceptional at times - 'going live' the obvious example, but if it keeps happening time and again. Then you have the ground that is ripe for hero culture.

Now the sneaky thing about hero culture is that it often feels like the cultures you love working: valued, supported, connected and trusted. It can be very subtle this - but this is where layers come into play. If the executive, leadership, constantly creates environments that require exceptionalism then you have a non-listening culture at play - at it's heart. You have a culture of politics, of fear, where people, though visibly cared for, are a commodity rather than unique souls. Avoid the hero culture.

Signs of Hero Culture

What are the clues? It can be hard to see from outside - so yo umay need to do a little more research. But here are the characteristics of hero cultures:

• Growth - if an organisation is not growing, or evolving, visibly be wary. Sustainable Growth - comes from real energy, usually sustainable thinking and leadership and a good clue that sane and sensible, clever and committed, people are at play. Watch out for high growth (where you all need to be heros - but that can be fun too if you all are). Growth does not need to be financial. For most public sector organisations that is not possible. It can be human growth - if you see people cheerleading for an organisation (House of Commons is a good example where you see people writing articles and pushing their organisation) that can be a good sign.
• Old culture/new system - thinking and systems - you have to be alert to this one. As often, in contracting you are call in to fix a system, but can you ask the right questions at the interview to assess if the thinking is really shifting, if the ambition to fix a problem, comes with culture change then great. But, if the culture, that created a problem is not addressed you can guarantee that the problem you are called in to fix - will be there again after you leave, in different shinier clothes - then this is hero culture. Avoid it. Good article here to remind you of the power of culture - Culture Eats Strategy For Breakfast
• Assess organisational dilemmas - this is a good one - one for interviews. Ask questions, that bring alive real dilemmas. That will tell you a lot about the culture. For example - "How do you balance reporting failure and success", "Do you get direct or indirect access to people", "do you spend more time in meetings or doing deep work". Just my thoughts - but here is a great article on the use of dilemmas as a way to identify and drive culture build a corporate culture that works

Be You

Ultimately, and this is where emotional maturity and growth come in - my view. You have to recognise your own style. I get deeply emotionally committed to work - a curse as well as a blessing. Though ambiguity in task, ambiguity in outcome, ambiguity in decision making are all factors in significant change - what I do not like is ambiguity in trust.

You cannot know how deep trust runs - your team, your boss, your wider group of colleagues - it all takes time to develop. Though you operate from a place of honesty, transparency, emotional engagement - you may not see that it is not reciprocated for quite some time.

So to assess whether an organisation is a cultural fit for you, avoiding the hero cultures, then you need time in an organisation. You need to see how deep trust goes - you need to see how authentic people are - you need to assess your impact and value - you need to perform and adjust always - you will get it wrong and you will get it right - you will get praised and you will get criticised (openly and not so openly - I prefer the open style).

You will find all of these aspects need consideration and time. You cannot get your view of an organisation right at interview, first week, first month, first project or business cycle - but enough weeks, months, project or business cycle you will get to know an organisation and it's people. Just another wee note - people can be great but need to behave in a way that is not who they are - so always look to disconnect your perception of a person with the way they behave in poor cultures (the system/culture always wins - and people, many people, have to do what they need to - survival is key).

Anyway -what is the only common, and early sign, that you can rely on?

YOU - YOURSELF

Build your own culture, build your own character, build your own ethos, build your own performance.

Go build - Be YOU.