Home Leadership Turn Archives Me RampUp Solutions  
 

  • Categories

  • Archives
 

Culture As Stain, Not Paint

by Miki Saxon

I love culture. I believe in the power of culture. I believe that good culture is the difference between great companies and the rest. I believe that pretty much all the people, like myself, who promote culture know that it must be like stain, not paint, to work. Unfortunately, many companies use “culture paint,” believing their employees will think it’s “culture stain.”

The difference is obvious, while culture stain is absorbed into the very fiber of an organization, thus affecting everybody’s thoughts and actions, culture paint sits on the surface where it is paid lip-service and its effects are grounded in convenience.

Culture stain is the direct output of the CEO (or whatever title the top person holds) and can be good, bad or indifferent. It’s the result of walking the talk and making sure that everybody else walks it, too. It’s never an accident and, although it can be unconscious, it shouldn’t be. Nor can it be considered the output of an underling, since “I didn’t know!” is never an acceptable reason for anything when coming from the person who ultimately is supposed to be in charge.

So, like it or not, culture is a product of, and flows from, the top. The ideas and desires that percolate up may be included in the culture, but if the top person only includes them to make people feel good, but doesn’t truly buy into them, the result is culture paint. Like real paint, culture paint can hide the dry rot and structural weaknesses in the company, but in the long run it won’t hold the people, because no matter what the CEO tells himself and his Board, people aren’t that dumb and they will vote the culture with their feet!

One Response to “Culture As Stain, Not Paint”
  1. MAPping Company Success Says:

    […] writing that culture stems from the top, and how to protect your culture when going through a hiring spurt, I received this email over the […]

Leave a Reply

RSS2 Subscribe to
MAPping Company Success

Enter your Email
Powered by FeedBlitz
About Miki View Miki Saxon's profile on LinkedIn

Clarify your exec summary, website, etc.

Have a quick question or just want to chat? Feel free to write or call me at 360.335.8054

The 12 Ingredients of a Fillable Req

CheatSheet for InterviewERS

CheatSheet for InterviewEEs

Give your mind a rest. Here are 4 quick ways to get rid of kinks, break a logjam or juice your creativity!

Creative mousing

Bubblewrap!

Animal innovation

Brain teaser

The latest disaster is here at home; donate to the East Coast recovery efforts now!

Text REDCROSS to 90999 to make a $10 donation or call 00.733.2767. $10 really really does make a difference and you'll never miss it.

And always donate what you can whenever you can

The following accept cash and in-kind donations: Doctors Without Borders, UNICEF, Red Cross, World Food Program, Save the Children

*/ ?>

About Miki

About KG

Clarify your exec summary, website, marketing collateral, etc.

Have a question or just want to chat @ no cost? Feel free to write 

Download useful assistance now.

Entrepreneurs face difficulties that are hard for most people to imagine, let alone understand. You can find anonymous help and connections that do understand at 7 cups of tea.

Crises never end.
$10 really does make a difference and you’ll never miss it,
while $10 a month has exponential power.
Always donate what you can whenever you can.

The following accept cash and in-kind donations:

Web site development: NTR Lab
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 2.5 License.