Proof that culture matters

Or Your career is what you make of it…and where you work???????

TLDR - If you work for an awesome organization, you can create meaningful solutions that improve the customer experience, drive profit, and enable personal (career) development.

I’ve been in the “people consulting” world for most of my career (now measured in multiple decades cause I’m old?). During that time, I’ve been lucky to work with a lot of smart people. We spent a lot of time talking about culture and the power of it.?

There is a great deal of data that supports why culture makes a company more profitable, more successful in the market, a better place to work, a more desirable company for clients to work with, and a lot more (great infographic that shares a lot of the data behind this statement?here).

But, admittedly, I’m not sure I’ve ever really experienced what it is to work in a truly people focused culture. Let’s be clear, I’m not talking about a panacea or utopia. The truth is any great organization kind of looks like this:?

During a recent all employee meeting for my department (TACO), we talked about career opportunity and what is possible/available at ServiceNow.??I thought about an opportunity I took to create a new product that would make our partner’s experience better (and give us a new opportunity for subscription revenue). It went something like this…

• Created an Enterprise Training Agreement and sold it as a pilot
• I worked hard to showcase the value of it and our senior leadership decided it was something we should develop?
• Senior leadership created a team that was staffed with internal experts and headed by an outstanding project leader
• Over the course of 6 months we worked hard to develop it?
• In September of 2022 we launched it and closed our first sales in October, then sold 2 more before the end of the year.?
• Now it’s a real thing, led by smart people that are operationalizing it fully.?
• I learned a TON and got to know great people in organization. It is, of course, not done and still a work in progress, but its already?

????????Making the company money

????????Making the partner happier

????????And generating more innovative ides to support partners.

The reason this happened is the culture…and the fact the leaders of this organization not only talk about it but live it and champion it on a daily basis.?

That’s the mark of a great place to work. When you can see it in the actions of leaders, experience it in the work you do, and realize that when things are not great…it’s still the place for you.?

(Side note – I’m not a spokesperson, but this week marks 3 years at ServiceNow. Yes, we’ve made the?Fortune Top 100 Places to Work. Yes, we’ve made the list on?Glassdoor. Yes, we support?diversity, inclusion, and belonging.)