Is your company’s culture created by default or design?

You've likely heard variations of this belief…. “culture beats strategy every time,” “culture eats strategy for breakfast,” and “culture outperforms strategy every time.”

To me, these statements imply that culture isn’t a strategy.

I profess a firmly held belief that creating a high performance work culture is a strategy.

While many leaders speak to the importance of their company’s culture, I have found that it is the rare few that make it one of their top strategic priorities.

In the healthcare industry, where I spend my time, there are many important strategic questions that can rise to the top. Should we affiliate or merge? Should we develop or join an accountable care organization? Should we build a new wing or campus? Should we upgrade or change our electronic health system? Should we move into a new market? Should we start, expand, or close a specific service line? The answer to these strategic questions will vary by organization and may change over time.

Yet, in response to the question “Should we design and foster a high performance culture?” the answer should always be YES!

In his Inc. article Why Culture Matters At Work, Jacob Morgan so rightly points out:

 “What's fascinating about culture, though, is that it exists regardless of whether the organization realizes it or decides to create it. A technological environment doesn't exist without actual things that the organization deploys. A physical environment doesn't exist unless the organization creates or designates one. But the corporate culture is like air--it's around all the employees who work there even if they aren't always aware of it. That is what it's so crucial to actually create and design a culture instead of just letting it exist.”

I have had the opportunity to intently assess multiple healthcare organizations. What I observe is that high performing and achieving ones place culture (aka human capital strategy) at, or near, the very top of a very small list of strategic priorities. In these organizations, culture is not an afterthought or separated from the clearly defined, adopted, and funded strategies of the organization.

In Patty McCord’s book Powerful: Building a Culture of Freedom and Responsibility, she provides insights into the strategic vision of Netflix regarding its performance culture. Some of the things they desired in their culture were:

• to embrace the need for change and be thrilled to drive it.
• to come to work each day, not despite the challenges but because of them.
• for all of our people to challenge leaders, and one another, vigorously.
• for no one, at any level, to keep vital insights and concerns to themselves.

This vision was captured in a core set of practices that underpinned the Netflix culture:

1. Open, clear, and constant communication about the work to be done and the challenges being faced, not only for a manager’s own team but for the company as a whole.
2. Practice radical honesty: telling one another, and leaders, the truth in a timely fashion and ideally face to face.
3. Have strong, fact-based opinions and to debate them avidly and test them rigorously.
4. Base actions on what was best for the customer and the company, not on attempts to prove yourself right.
5. Hiring managers to take the lead in preparing their teams for the future by making sure they have high performers with the right skills in every position.

The leadership of Netflix was so intent that every employee understood these core set of practices, that they created a consistent message around them via a PowerPoint that became known as the Netflix Culture Deck which has been viewed more than 18 million times.

Netflix did not leave their culture to chance. They were, and are, strategic in designing the desired performance culture for their business.

Netflix has over the years continued to be strategic and visionary about their culture. The content of their culture deck is formatted a bit different now and is worth a read through. Check it out here. The revised document captures many of the same principles in the original deck with a notable addition of "inclusion" as a core value.

Culture is going to exist whether you ignore it or optimize it.

Good or bad. Intentional or unintentional. Attended to or unattended to. Strategic or not. No business if void of culture.

It’s not soft stuff. It’s not a business or leadership fad. It’s strategic. It’s powerful.

As the saying goes, "You either manage your culture or it will manage you."

Prioritize culture as a top strategic priority. Just Start.

About the Author

Sue Tetzlaff, RN, RHIA, MHA, FACHE, is the co-founder and principal of Capstone Leadership Solutions, Inc. She is the co-author of the book, The Employee Experience: A Capstone Guide to Peak Performance and a trainer/coach in the leadership eLearning app CapstoneEDU.

Sue is a firm believer that mediocrity can be replaced by greatness. She is blessed with meaningful work when she's helping community healthcare organizations design strategies and execute to go higher and farther. Faster.

Senior leaders in community healthcare organizations can click here to learn more about transforming your organization's culture and results; or call 906.259.0542 to schedule a phone consultation.