It's the Culture, stupid!

Since the global economy is now to be reset, this could be a good time to reimagine company and organisational culture. We regularly state that ‘culture’ is a key if not the most important factor in business success yet most businesses are still playing out in other areas without visiting the culture within. Company culture can now be easily measured and this year we worked alongside the guys at 1872Culture with their diagnostic which gives a clear temperature check on what is happening under the bonnet.

Organisational culture is a funny thing. Most agree largely that it is important. Seldom do we hear ‘ Naw, it’s not that important at all’ . If company bosses are asked about their culture they will use positive terms and descriptors. Nobody wants to admit that their culture is poor. The same is true for employees and if they think the culture is bad, they have an eye on exiting. Employees don’t leave jobs or companies, they leave poor cultures or managers who uphold that defective culture.

Can culture be changed? Of course it can. Is change costly? Yes it requires the investment of time and effort as well as financial resource but the cost of not changing is often ten-fold or indeed terminal.

Culture can often be referred to as ‘soft’ just like customer experience can be referred to as ‘soft’. These skills and environments are far from ‘soft’ but instead are ‘human’ factors. They are ‘power skills’. Culture is very tangible in any business. The behaviours of the business or its organisation through its employees are a direct correlation to its culture. Organisational culture is very simple to define. It’s ‘how we do things around here’. It is also quite simple to measure. The volume of research in this field is both astounding and exciting.

Those who are plugging into it are experiencing positive changes despite the disruption faced.