How Reese's peanut butter cups explains culture, purpose & employee engagement

I have several favorite chocolate bars. Crunchie is one. Toffee and chocolate. What a combination. So too is a Reese Cup. Peanut butter and chocolate? Yes please. And don’t get me started about a caramel-filled Dairy Milk bar from England.

As your mouth waters and the endorphins kick into high gear, let’s think about the magic combination that makes up a high performing organization.

When an organization operates with an open culture while demonstrating a higher purpose as it carries out its mission, the sweetness that results is an engaged employee base that in turn delights customers. In the case of my chocolate bar metaphor, when the organization successfully mixes together culture and purpose, the result should be an indelible positive experience for both the employee and the customer.

I have found, however, that the concepts of?culture,?purpose?and?engagement?can become confusing. Sometimes employees (and even senior?leaders) think the three terms mean the same thing.

They don’t.

All about culture, purpose & employee engagement

In fact it’s a bit like our chocolate metaphor. Take the?Reese’s?Peanut Butter Cup example. Chocolate on its own can be referred to as?culture. Peanut butter can be thought of as purpose. When we put both the chocolate and the peanut butter together, we get engagement. The Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup is the resulting effect of successfully combining chocolate and peanut butter. It is the engaged employee. In organizations, we must think this way if we want to delight the customer. We have to understand both culture and purpose are critical to an engaged employee population.

The issue boils down to definitions.

CULTURE IS?HOW?AN ORGANIZATION OPERATES.

Every organization ought to be developing a systemic?leadership?philosophy that defines how it functions with one another, external suppliers/partners as well as its customers. It’s the operating ethos.

I’m not referring to values, mission statements or strategic imperatives. These are important, but none of them relate to the?how.

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