A: Do a quick search for “organizational culture” on Google or Wikipedia and you’ll get something about values, artifacts, belief systems, codes of conduct… and the sudden urge to surf to a site that makes sense.
We know culture is important, but the way it is defined generally doesn’t give us anything to sink our teeth into. We can’t act on artifacts; what are you going to do, recall all your pre-merger coffee mugs right now? (Probably a good idea, by the way.)
Think of culture this way: Culture is what stops the constant renegotiation of goals, priorities, and methods amongst leaders. Culture is how pecking orders are determined. Culture is what determines how hard people will work, versus how hard people will work on deciding how hard to work.To act on culture, do the following: the next time you see something that you don’t like—for instance, two of your subordinates bickering over a budget allocation—recognize the fight as an indication of either (1) a combative culture, or (2) a weak culture. This change in perspective should be enough to drive a change in behavior… and then a change in culture. In this case, rather than step in to mediate, you might instead ask the managers why the allocation is so important, and refocus them on desired results.Which would be a great step towards a stronger, more forward-looking culture!
 | Enjoy this blog? Listen to my new podcast, Beyond Social. |
I'm Jason. I make people shine. My mission is to help 1 million people tell their stories better. 