The Three “C”’s of Culture Transformation – Consistency, Context and Communications

In my quest to find Culture leaders and Culture champions who have successfully built admirable organizations, I’ve deliberately sought out exemplars from markets beyond North America. Truth be told, there are inspirational leaders operating in every market – and so many are brimful of insight and anecdotes that we could all learn from. I recently spoke with Lance Walker from Wellington in New Zealand. Lance has had a storied career spanning Chief Executive roles in marketing agencies, insurance organizations and, in the past three months, assuming the leadership role for the Wellington Regional Economic Development Agency (WREDA). In short, the Agency intended to enhance the region’s prosperity, vibrancy and liveability through supporting economic growth and promoting Wellington as a world-class destination. I reached Lance in his Wellington office to discuss why building and nurturing Culture is the most crucial role a leader can focus on.

HB: Could we perhaps level-set by going through a brief background on you and your career?

LW: Sure. My career has been a series of Executive roles within very strong marketing driven organizations. Firstly at a number of well-respected New Zealand communication agencies, then leading New Zealand’s largest consumer loyalty program at Loyalty New Zealand. Prior to joining WREDA, I was fortunate enough to run Cigna Life Insurance for four years. Cigna is part of a global Insurance Group with a strong local governance model too. In the past three months I’ve moved over to the Wellington Regional Economic Development Agency to help fulfill a very exciting and audacious mandate which is to help make Wellington the most prosperous, liveable and vibrant region in Australasia. That’s a fantastic opportunity and I’m overjoyed I get to play a part in that.

HB: Mmmm…I might need to chat to my family about a move down South. Can you give me some background on what has shaped your thinking about Culture and how important Culture is for an organization.

LW: For the record I should say I’m always a little embarrassed when people ask me for my opinion on building great Cultures as a lot of what I talk about just seems like good common sense! As a leader I’ve always considered my role to be, quite simply, a factor of two things. One is setting organizational direction and priorities and, two creating an environment that allows the talented people in the organization to be successful.

I subscribe to the belief that CEO’s really should act as the Chief Culture Officer and have that as their key priority. That’s where they have the most influence and can have the most impact.

 More specifically, it is about recognizing that you’re leading a community of people and that, if you can create the right environment that community will collaborate, share, help each other and grow together.

For me at least, thinking in terms of a community – rather than a business which is quite an abstract construct – is a more effective operating mentality. I’ve always liked to think in terms of leading a community not a business.

HB: That’s a very powerful vernacular. Why do you think so many leaders struggle with the humanistic elements of Culture despite all the evidence that shows how critical it is?

LW: There’s several in my opinion and some of them are very much historical in nature.

We’ve traditionally promoted leaders for functional expertise or their technical or specialization ability. But the reality is that just because you’ve been a high performer in your technical area of expertise that doesn’t automatically mean that you’re going to be an effective people or culture leader. We’re still very much promoting leaders who achieve those technical expertise and who have had little exposure – or training – in the human-based Culture elements.

Then there’s the reality that typically a business runs and is evaluated on traditional performance metrics that are easily quantifiable and easily comparable. Things like sales, ROI, EBIDTA are the obvious ones. Culture on the other hand is, almost by definition, harder to measure which is part of the problem. But the other part is that Culture is harder to control as a variable. Some of the other business metrics have variables that you can, with some ease and confidence, control. Culture, because its inherently about people, isn’t one you can exert so much direct and immediate control over to the same degree. And certainly not with the same speed that you can drop or raise prices, buy or sell production equipment and so on.

HB: Some of the most passionate and enthusiastic proponents of Culture in my network seem to be Kiwis. Is that just a coincidence or is there a broader or deeper sensitivity to the potential of Culture in your region?

LW: I can’t comment on whether we’re more or less sensitive than other parts of the world or believe in Culture more deeply either. But I think there might be something deeply ingrained in our liberal and egalitarian kiwi culture about wanting to treat people with respect, and the importance of the team over the individual. And certainly what I can see from my career here in New Zealand is that the Culture topic has gained tremendous momentum and is very much a topic of great importance not just within management circles but also at the board level, where it is discussed with increased frequency.

Here’s an indication perhaps of how some organizations in New Zealand are placing higher emphasis on Culture as a key success driver. When I was running Cigna, the local Financial Sector regulators were, and still are, a very strong and visible proponent of placing Culture and Conduct measures in place for the Industry.

Their opinion – which I strongly endorse – is that great systems and processes aren’t sufficient enough to ensure great conduct and compliance within organisations. 

We’ve probably all seen examples where all the systems were in place but the Culture – or more specifically the behaviours manifest in the Culture – was the actual point of failure.

I thought that was a very enlightened point of view for a regulator to take and was glad to see them take that position.

HB: Can we go back to your earlier point about leading a Community? How is it that you’ve seen this done well particularly from your own experience?

LW: I’m a huge believer in the principle that Cultures are defined by the lowest level of behaviour tolerated or accepted by the leaders within an organization. That responsibility for elevating the behaviours rests squarely with the leaders and Executives of an organization. I talk constantly about the importance of leaders consistently modelling the behaviours they want to promote and see across an organization – that’s an incredible responsibility for leaders because, like other people, we get frustrated, we get stressed, we get annoyed but we have to keep in mind we set the tone. For everyone.

I said that I find the word “business” a bit of an abstraction particularly in the context of Culture.

The reality is that whether you’re a coach of a team, a parent with children, the captain of a sports team or the leader of an organization, what you model – or what you tolerate or accept – sets the tone for that entire unit.

We may call these situations something different but the principles – and the consequences – are identical.

While I can appreciate the desire to delineate between our “work life” and our “personal life”, the risk is we set some unnatural constraints when we think we can behave with compassion and empathy to our family, friends and children at home but leave compassion and empathy out of the equation just because we’re “at work”. It doesn’t work like that. In both cases we’re dealing with people and we’re responsible for setting the tone and the behaviours we’ll tolerate.

HB: As a dyed-in-the-wool Marketer, do you subscribe to the notion that Culture is actually a competitive advantage and have you seen that play out over the course of your career?

LW: In my view culture absolutely is a competitive advantage in that in creates the environment which allows people to express themselves, to act with confidence, to try new things, to embrace success. Butit also isn’t a panacea, nor does a good Culture automatically translate into business success, fame and fortune. There’s been plenty of great Cultures which have gone out of business so its important that we don’t fall into the trap of swinging so far into the “Culture can solve everything” mindset that we forget the other crucial aspects of running a business.

That being said, I certainly saw Culture have a profound impact on our business at Cigna in two fundamental ways. One was in our ability to attract world-class talent which, I needn’t have to tell you, is getting harder and harder. We were undertaking quite a profound Digital Transformation, so we were delighted that we could attract brilliant developers and IT wizards to an insurance company because they’d heard how progressive and balanced our Culture was. That was a huge coup – and certainly a competitive advantage. The other part was the crucial area of talent retention. Again, we all know how costly retraining is in terms of lost velocity, lost IP, lost industry knowledge but if your Culture creates an environment where people want to stay longer, contribute more deeply and fully, then you’ve got a very distinct advantage right there.

HB: You’ve referenced CIGNA several times in this interview. Can you give me some background on your time at CIGNA and some of the initiatives you put in place?

LW: Absolutely. One of the crucial parts when I took over at Cigna was to establish a benchmark of where the Culture was at and where we wanted to take it. I’m a fan of benchmarking and trying to quantify or diagnose the Culture because it helps establish exactly where we’re at but also gives everyone in the team some common language which is important over the duration of a Culture transformation.

Importantly we set out to create a Leadership Charter which went beyond our functional responsibilities– I run Marketing, I lead Finance etc – but was an articulation of what we were here to deliver to our colleagues as an aspirational Culture or environment. Not surprisingly we then translated that Charter into Leadership KPI’s much as we would’ve done for any other critical Strategy.

Again, back to some of the common sense approaches to Culture, if you say that Culture is an important route to growth then you need to be as deliberate and obsessive about making that a reality as any other key initiative.

That means having a baseline, a strategy, budget, focus, KPI’s – all the usual stuff that shows you’re really committed to this.

Then its about implementation and, from my experience, I’ve seen Culture efforts get bogged down because we sometimes over-complicate things when simple and symbolic acts are often way more powerful. Things like putting Culture as the number 1 agenda item at every Executive Team meeting was a small but powerful signal that we saw it as the most important thing to get right. We were also very deliberate – and quite proud – about putting health and wellness at the centre of our Culture. What that meant was our leadership being very committed to not undermining that value which could happen quite quickly and easily. Consider how quickly we’d have eroded the value of health and wellness if we’d reprimanded a colleague for being at the gym or on a run when their boss was looking for them? Simple little examples but its often the smallest things that colleagues notice and those either reinforce that the Culture is real and practised or merely words on a wall.

The other things which I believe were huge contributors were the 3 “C’s” of Communication, Consistency and Context. Communicating and over-communicating is so absolutely critical but we often forget that colleagues need to be reminded and reminded that we’re committed to the Culture. Consistency of course means sticking to it through thick and thin. Cultures can certainly evolve and grow but they can’t be schizophrenic and erratic if you want them to take hold across the organization. Lastly, Context. Why are we doing this, why is it going to help the business, what happens if we don’t modify how we act and behave? Colleagues demand – and they absolutely deserve to know – the context for the tactics and the Culture strategies being implemented. That’s just being respectful and authentic to your community.

HB: Those are some great foundational pieces of advice Lance. And remarkably pragmatic and full of common sense as we discussed earlier. Are there any other pieces of advice you’d share with business – or community – leaders to help them get to grips with their Culture?

LW: I told you it was a lot of common sense (Laughs). Many of the core pieces of advice are captured already I think but here are a few others that I personally believe are pivotal.

One is the notion of being overt about your commitment to Culture. If you’re a true believer in Culture and its power to drive a business, then you need to be the most enthusiastic and visible cheerleader for that. Stick your colours to the mast unashamedly I say.

Two is be authentic. While authenticity might be the most over-used and clichéd leadership word out there, it is massively important. People can immediately sense when you’re not authentic or merely going through the motions. People see straight through inauthentic people and that can kill any initiative, particularly a Culture transformation.

Three is be present with your people. I’m a huge proponent of doing the simple acts with consistency and excellence. Being present, particularly when business and life seems to be pulling people in multiple directions simultaneously, is an act of respect and people notice it. Focus on the meeting you’re in, the person you’re talking with, the issue at hand. Give your people your full attention in every interaction and its remarkable how that behaviour starts to ripple through your organization.

I love the quotation “Culture grows in the shadow of leadership” because it’s a powerful reminder to ask yourself what shadow you’re casting as a leader because your impact can be incredibly profound.

HB: Thank you Lance. My best wishes for your new assignment at WREDA. I look forward to circling back on this chat in a few months.

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Your organization's ability to ADAPT is the most critical business imperative Executives face today. People, not Pixels, are the only sustainable competitive advantage you have.

I am a Toronto-based Consultant with a love for Marketing and a passion for Culture. In this Digital age, I truly believe that Culture, Leadership and Capacity either impedes or accelerates any organization's efforts to grow.

I would love to discuss your organization's adaptability with you and help you create a Culture that inspires and invigorates your people.

Reach me at hilton@hiltonbarbour.com