Intentional Cultures Require Intentionality

Welcome to the first edition of Culture Matters, which is a bi-weekly look at organizations, cultures, trends, ideas, and news stories to help you shape your culture. My passion is creating workplaces where people know who they are and what they do make a difference. This newsletter is just one way to I get to be in service of that passion.

I asked 8 Chief People Officers about workplace culture and here's what they had to share...

I had a lot of fun talking about culture and change with?Sheryl Tullis?(CMO- TA Group Holdings)?Rebecca Clements?(People Leader- Averro; former Chief People Officer at Moz and SVP People & Culture Ally.io).?When it comes to culture-building, they offered five BIG takeaways:

-Be brave and really dig into the dynamics that influence your?#culture

-Call out what you find and hold it up as a mirror for the organization to see and embrace

-Clarify your beliefs & values… and define both what it does & doesn’t look like to live them

-Give people the freedom to create and contribute to the culture in meaningful ways with frameworks to guide their contributions

-Keep learning and growing

Thank you to?Michelle Clements?(Chief People & Culture Officer, Seattle Hospitality Group and former CHRO REI & Eddie Bauer) for your perspectives and insights on organizational culture:

- Understand your decision-making model. It has the power to enable or disrupt your ability to move things forward!

- Developing?#culture?requires head (systems), hands (behaviors & actions) and heart (values & beliefs)

- Be honest about your company's "Brutal Truths"... be self-aware about who you are as a company and who you're not

- Always "protect" what makes you special & great... while at the same time "stimulate" what will help you progress. It's about balance.

Lauren Bledsoe (Director of People and Culture, Syndio) offered her perspective and insights on organizational culture. Some juicy takeaways:

-Start with being clear about the values and behaviors that define how people will interact with each other.?For example, one of?Syndio's values are Curiosity & Humility.?They’re pretty clear what that looks like.

-Next, build rituals, routines and artifacts that amplify and reinforce them.?They have some fun ones such as a?#props?Slack channel for employees to brag on one another and Free Think Friday to reflect on the week and prep for the next.

-Finally, understand your people networks.?While its important to focus on building the formal processes & structures that deliver customer value, it’s equally important to tend to the informal peer structures and networks that influence how decisions are made and how relationships are built & maintained.

In my conversation with?Dayna Eberhardt?(Chief People Officer, MOD Pizza) we talked about how challenging it can be to work on something abstract as culture and the importance of having a framework to create from.

-The work of culture isn't "soft" or "feely"... it actually requires the thoughtful bringing together of the "head" (systems, structure, process) and the "heart" (rituals, storytelling, artifacts). One without the other can lead to default cultures instead of the cultures we intend.

-We also explored how sometimes doing the work of cultivating just one attribute of your culture teaches you more than you think.?In doing the work to address one attribute (i.e.- belonging) you have to pay attention to the whole, which can yield tremendous insights and benefits to understanding and improving your overall?#culture.

I spoke with?Ginger Hardage?(CEO, Unstoppable Cultures and former VP of Culture and Communications, Southwest Airlines) about creating?Unstoppable Cultures, which revolves around 3 pillars:

1- Put People First

2- Share Stories Relentlessly

3- Constantly Nourish

Ginger is not a “check the box” kind of leader. It’s not an accident that “Put People First” IS first on her list. Frameworks are necessary but they are no substitute for conviction, and it’s clear that one of Ginger’s convictions is making space for people to grow into their full and powerful selves.

In my chat with Kirsten Spoljaric (VP People, Pantastic and former Chief People Officer, Zipwhip) we explored how taking a "process-based" approach can be beneficial. Mapping the employee lifecycle, identifying key culture touch points and embedding opportunities to reinforce core values and recognition can go a long way. Some of those touch points include 1:1's, performance management conversations, hiring, onboarding, and training & development. This approach creates a core & common experience that ensures every employee is "touched and inspired" by your values.

Finally, I spoke with Petra Smith (Executive Director of HR, Allen Institute and former VP of HR at Seattle Children's Hospital) about the role executive leaders play in shaping culture. "If they aren't committed to the core values then it doesn't matter what you do, the message conflicts and gives rise to stronger sub-cultures that may make it harder to enable your strategy... be it talent, DEI, or business [strategy]."

Some things have more of an impact on shaping culture than others. Here's what we found...

There are any number of things that contribute to the cultural ecosystem that make up an organization. However, some cast a larger shadow and tend to have an outsized impact than others. Check out the post and graphic. Curious how it lines up with or contradicts your experience?

“While every culture is unique, the framework to create it doesn't have to be.” -Margo Downs

Our research led us to adopt the Cultural Web Model as a way to help organizations understand and cultivate intentional culture. Check out this post and slide that introduces the model.

Can workplace culture be intentionally cultivated? We think so!

This quick read summarizes how we use the Culture Web to quickly help organization's assess their culture. Give it a read and let me know what you think.

One of my favorite reads this week...

This HBR article discusses the notion of a "blameless" work culture and how to build for it.

What else would you like to see me cover in the next issue?

Let me know in the comments!