Too Often, There's No 'I' in Culture

"Culture eats strategy for breakfast."? That’s a quote from the legendary Peter Drucker who changed my life completely with some of what he wrote.? (His birthday is tomorrow, by the way.? Thank you so much!)

Yes, culture is important.

But have we taken this too far?? “Strong cultures have those who fit and those who do not,” I was always told. ? Stronger must be better, more narrow fit must be even better.??

As happens so often, the pendulum swings and it swings long and far.? Way too far.? Peter Drucker’s brilliant insight is shorthanded as an excuse to exclude those not like ‘us’, and ignore people with different views.? Too often companies and leaders let their strong cultures become a moat with a drawbridge.??

Leaders eventually find themselves homogenized and isolated rather than vibrant and evolving.? They teach change management, adopt new practices to drive and manage change.? But they are often fighting their own fixation on a narrow culture.

I am not suggesting strong cultures are all bad.? I’m arguing that good cultures should foster differences, enable heterogeneity, unlock what’s unique about people, and encourage change.????

Enabling people to be themselves, pursue their passions, should be at the centerpiece of any culture.? CEOs are now told by the experts, appropriately, to define our purpose, be explicit about our values and beliefs, and work hard to make sure the company lives that purpose and those values.? That’s all great stuff.? But sounds too much about the company and not enough about the individuals who make the company, the organization, a living, breathing impactful thing.??

In many organizations, however, the written or unwritten ‘values’ become more about homogeneity, sameness, and less about individuality and personal passion.? In the interview process there is so much emphasis on ‘fit’ that differences are perceived as ‘watch outs’ or even ‘knock out’ factors.??

The impact of this over-emphasis on cultural fit can discourage diversity, create a brake on change, cause the company to lose step with the pace outside, and? thereby diminish the performance potential of the company itself.??

Optimization is good, until it isn’t. We often optimize and optimize some more. One day we find our optimization instead of leading us down a great path more efficiently has dug us into a ditch from which we can no longer even see the world outside, which has changed and made our path a road to nowhere.? A company’s best quarter is then succeeded by its worst as it’s ‘rear view mirror’ guidance system is not only distracting, but totally fixated on a past that is no longer true.? The culture is indirectly destructive..?

This emphasis on a specific cultural identity can dampen that invisible engine that drives us all:? passion.? That doesn't mean we should stop building and discussing our culture. It also doesn’t mean that individuals should come to work to drive the company in whatever direction they want. It means company cultures should be created to foster individuality and encourage individual purpose and passions, inside the office and out.??

We should be saying, and demonstrating, that you can be yourself, charge against your passions ‘within’ our company.? I am certain that by doing that you will bring more joy and passion to your work. Your passions, unique personality, and capabilities, all, should be welcomed to the company every day, not put away until you get home as you finally escape to be yourself.?

We (CEOs and leaders of organizations?like me) typically spend too much time describing our own company's purpose and values, and not enough helping our people:

1. use their own value and passions within their career
2. find their purpose and passion if they haven’t yet?

Usually an individual’s passions and values are very compatible with the company’s. Where they really aren’t, we should encourage you to pursue them in your spare time and not work 10 hours a day on the company’s purpose completely at the expense of your own.? And, of course, if you find or create a place that better aligns with who you are and what you believe in, we should encourage? you to go and support you in that pursuit.?

At Logitech when our leader of People and Culture, Kirsty Russell (thank you Kirsty for everything including the sculpting of this thinking), took over in 2016, we undertook a huge dialogue with over 90% of our people. Our goal was to find out both what people liked and didn’t about our culture as well as what they felt we needed to inject into our culture.?

Our people generally told us Logitech is “a place where I can be myself.”? That was a terrific starting point and got captured as “open and ourselves” in our aspirational culture description.? They also told us that we should never rest on social impact and environmental topics that so many of our people are? passionate about. So we built them more overtly into our description for our aspirational culture and into the explicit purpose of the company. Our culture is a work in progress, as it is for all companies.? We’re getting better at this over time.

And they asked one more thing:? please articulate the purpose of the company in a way I can relate to it.? The old description (‘extending human capability’) was meaningful to me and a few others at the top, but really nebulous to most people, meaning not useful and maybe even ‘driving people away.’ I’d been lazy in sculpting our description and the price to pay was that it was unrelatable.? So we changed the description?to answer ‘why are we trying to extend human capability’?? We now articulate it as to ‘enable ALL people to pursue their passions … in a way that is also good for the planet’.? We keep sculpting that description to make it more and more powerful for each individual.??

I'm tired of all this talk about 'company culture’ as if it's the most important thing in creating a successful organization.? Culture is enormously important.? But one thing matters alot more.

?You.