Company culture has many facets which evolve as the company does. Initially, when a company starts, the culture is simply the values and behaviours of the founders. When the team is small and there is still direct communication and involvement between the founders and all employees, you still end up with a clear set of core values that are lived without anyone talking or being intentional about it. As the company grows, hiring and other aspects of the business start to be done by non-founders. In addition, when companies are still small, everyone is usually so busy juggling lots of different balls that they don’t stand back to look at the bigger picture of what they are creating or take the time to intentionally think about the culture which is evolving. The more people you add to an organisation, the more diverse the set of values becomes. Each person comes with their own set of values, each team establishes their own “norms” usually based on the behaviour and values of their manager. This goes on, often until the “culture” starts causing problems, such as: poor performance, high turnover, bad service, lack of engagement, low productivity, de-motivated employees etc. This leaves the business owners and leadership team working harder to prevent “balls being dropped” and being overwhelmed with everything that needs to be done. On top of this they spend far too much time trying to deal with the consequences of poor performance, high turnover, lack of engagement etc – instead of doing what is most important and meaningful for the organisation’s success.
In the context of companies, culture is simply the way people behave and work together in the organisation. So how do we behave/act towards each other? When do we stop working well together? Why do we get disappointed with people and their performance? Why are people not committed towards our company goals? Why is implementation so frustrating? Why are people not talking to each other to solve problems faster? Why can people not take responsibility? Why do people lack drive & motivation? And how are these symptoms affecting my bottom-line? The reason these questions persist, is that we are running our companies on very outdated management practices that lack an understanding of human behaviour. On top of this, we have structures, processes and practices that simply are not designed for people to grow or thrive.
Behavioural change is simple, but not easy. It requires a conscious choice to change behaviour. For most of us, we did not learn how to consciously create our reality, so we are unconsciously doing it all the time. Just like most company cultures are being created unconsciously.
Where does an individual’s behaviour come from? The thinking/feeling/beliefs/assumptions/values of that person.
Where does a team’s behaviour (culture) come from? The collective thinking/feeling/beliefs/assumptions/values of that team.
Where does an organisation’s behaviour (culture) come from? The collective thinking/feeling/beliefs/assumptions/values of ALL the people in the organisation.
It is important to note that in hierarchical structures, an organisation/team’s behaviour (culture) is heavily influenced by the CEO/Founders/Leadership/Manager’s behaviours/values – again unconsciously – unless intentionally created otherwise as you will see. To be clear, the process is not to change an individual’s values. The process is simply to consciously define what core values the organisation wants to stand for, which will guide its decision-making and therefore behaviour. This clarity provides consistency and the consistency attracts people & clients who love your organisation and become raving fans!
What do you want to create as a brand/organisation? What is your shared vision of how you want things to be as an organisation or team? What can you do to turn this around? Is it possible that ALL people can be highly motivated and driven towards achieving “success” for your organisation? What would that take? What would be possible if you did turn this around? What could you achieve if everyone was working well together, if everyone was committed to their goals and took responsibility for achieving them? What could you achieve if everyone in your organisation was inspired by your great vision for what you want to achieve?
Once you are clear on the vision, you can make commitments around what you need to do (strategy) and who you need to be (people) in order to achieve that vision. The way you go about achieving those commitments is by living your core values.
