Organizational Culture: The Frosting or the Cake?

My husband’s birthday is this Friday. I’m eyeballs deep in flour, and the smells of vanilla, and buttercream, and coconut are wafting from my kitchen. Naturally, I’m thinking about culture. Seems appropriate.

Culture is an organization’s most powerful force. Sadly, it gets the reputation for being the “soft stuff” or what I like to call, “the frosting.” But culture is not the frosting on the cake. Culture is the cake. Culture will make or break your company. For those that live and die on data and measurement, would it help if I told you that a Harvard study of 200 companies found that strong culture increased net income 756% over 11 years?

As I watch companies build, and grow, and decline, and break, and start over again, I find myself atop the organizational culture soapbox. In 2018, I was facilitating a workshop for a room of CEOs, and I asked a simple question. “Who here has made culture-building a strategic priority?” Nearly every hand in the room pridefully shot up in the air. I met the response with resounding praise and a quick round of applause. And then I asked, “would you be willing to share a copy of your culture-building strategy or plan with me?” As a blanket of bewilderment fell across the room, hands slowly started to come down. A bit perplexed, one of the CEOs said, “It’s not written out, but it is so important. Our senior leaders have made it a priority.” I tend to get a different response when I ask about strategies for growing revenue or launching into new markets. You wouldn’t take a new product to market without a plan or cultivate a prospective client without a laser-focused strategy. Without the “plan” there is far too much exposure to variables that could derail your effort.

So why would you leave something as important as culture to chance?

Culture-building is actionable work that must be methodically planned, executed, cultivated, and yes, measured. Just as a leader’s actions, decisions, and communications impact the outcome of a product launch or client cultivation, they also reinforce, for better or worse, organizational culture.