Starting in the 1980s when the media turned the spotlight on how economic survival, let alone success, would require enormous cultural changes at corporate giants such as AT&T (they blew it), IBM (amazing success), and Xerox (still trying), discussions of culture and its effects have dynamically increased each year with no end in sight.

Dozens of experts and thousands of people have used millions of words to describe and explain culture. Here are 10 random responses from non-managerial knowledge workers to the question, “What’s culture?”

1. The people. Their personalities and interpersonal communications.
2. The ambience that the company emits.
3. The environment in which workers co-exist and achieve the company’s goals.
4. It should describe the company’s work environment/atmosphere/morale, etc.
5. The company culture is the framework or environment that motivates employees to produce the best results for the company.
6. It’s [the company’s] identity.
7. The way things really are as opposed to how they’re described.
8. Environment of interaction and judgment.
9. How people relate to each other professionally and personally.
10. The reason for coming to work.

These answers from “nobodies” accurately and simply state the concepts propounded by both experts and academics using multi-syllabic words and fancier language.

Well beyond salary, culture is why people join a company—and more important, why they stay. It is what motivates (or demotivates) them, and cultural changes are frequently why they leave.

Workplace negatives usually the first topic of conversation and today’s savvier workers really pin down what they don’t want:

• Too much politics: personal, group, or senior management
• Unfairness; favoritism; star mentality
• Unnecessary bureaucracy; inflexible process or bureaucracy masquerading as process
• Poor management practices such as: erratic management; micro-management; workaholism; intimidation; belittling or contemptuous treatment; no loyalty; poor scheduling; the attitude that “we don’t have the time to do it right but we have the time to do it over”
• Any form of harassment whether overt or covert
• A generally negative attitude, i.e., the glass is half empty
• Arrogance or an elitist attitude
• An unwillingness (at whatever level) to seek and implement the compromises necessary to meet organizational needs within the required timeframe

Obviously there are many more philosophies, attitudes, and actions that could be listed, but most of them will fit the spirit, if not the specifics, of those above.

Unfortunately people learn from experience and many people have never experienced cultural elements other than those described above, so that their actions eventually start to mimic their experience—whether consciously or not—but that doesn’t mean they like them.

Turn your attention to the positives and the sophistication of today’s workforce is even more obvious. Here are some of the high points that people at all levels say they want for themselves and from their managers:

• The opportunity to truly “make a difference.”
• To be treated fairly.
• To trust management and be trusted by them.
• To embrace the idea that work can and should be fun.
• Accurate prioritizing of company, team, and individual goals while keeping them synergistic
• No “blue sky” projects or scheduling.
• A positive “can-do” attitude (aggressive, but realistic—the glass is half full).
• A conscious effort to stamp out “not invented here” syndrome (in all its varied forms) so as to not waste time reinventing the wheel.
• Continuing development and quality improvement in people, product/services, and processes.
• Committing to employees, customers, and investors—and meeting those commitments.
• An open, accurate, company-wide flow of information starting from the top.
• An environment that encourages people to reach their full potential, professionally and personally.

Again, each positive on the list covers a multitude of specifics and some are direct reversals of items on the negative list.

In general culture comes from the top and rarely can be changed from below. However, if you are strong enough and believe deeply enough, then for better or worse you can become an umbrella to your organization and separate it from the culture of the company in general. Since this is a very difficult path to choose it is wise to make the choice consciously and not find yourself accidentally bucking your company’s culture.

In brief, here are the steps to take to start the process of creating/changing your culture. Whether you are CEO of a startup or a boss (any level) in a large company you need to

1. Know who you are: Since this step is strictly between you and yourself you need to be brutally frank as to your attitudes towards people, motivation, what’s important, what’s OK to do, etc., in other words, know your MAP! It doesn’t really matter with which list (positive or negative) your attitudes and beliefs are synergistic, what matters is that you know where they fall, are comfortable with that, and understand that you need to hire people who will flourish in the environment you create.
2. Define your cultural goals: Using the knowledge of your MAP determine the kind of culture you want and write a description including your vision and the specific infrastructure, processes, practices, etc., that are needed to make it reality. Test the attractiveness of your cultural vision by whether you would want to work in a similar culture. If the answer is yes then you can proceed with it; however, if your response is “no way” then you need to rethink what you want because over the long haul people tend to gravitate to people like themselves (likes really do attract). In other words, you will be hired by, work with and hire those with similar attitudes.
3. Know what you have: Honestly assess (warts and all) whatever culture currently exists in your company and department (if you have one or more people you have some kind of culture); without a detailed assessment you won’t know what you need to tweak, change, circumvent, ignore or avoid.
4. Be aware of the cost of change: Changing culture often results in turnover and turnover can be costly no matter the condition of the labor market. People join companies because they feel comfortable and change is rarely comfortable. If they don’t like the end result (or the direction it’s heading) they are likely to start looking. If the manager is aware and prepared that isn’t always a bad thing; cultural changes can’t happen without changing employee mindset and some people won’t change, worse, they will make every effort to sabotage the changes. By being prepared you can not only circumvent that, but often turn the saboteur into a new culture evangelist.
5. Don’t assume: The human race functions to a great extent on various sets of unconscious assumptions. In the workplace people tend to assume that people with similar educations, experience levels, positions, etc., have similar mindsets, attitudes and philosophies, and, based on those similarities, would create similar cultures thereby guaranteeing their willingness to buy into their vision. Predicating acceptance of change on the assumption of deep, unproven commonality is a recipe for disaster.
6. Don’t overwhelm the troops: Whether you are changing an entire corporation (Gerstner and IBM), creating a culture for your startup, tweaking it within your department or group, or revamping it in your small business, recognize that you can’t just come in, make an announcement, and expect people to buy into the vision. Present it in small bite-size pieces and such a way that people feel they have input in the process and creates a feeling of ownership.
7. Communicate and sell—don’t order and tell! Even if your goal is a truly collaborative, nurturing culture that challenges and then helps people to realize their full potential you can’t just walk in on Monday and announce that that’s the way it will be from then on.

First, it’s unlikely that anybody will believe you (talk’s cheap); second, if you’re new it’s unlikely that they’ll trust you (no track record with them); third, whether you’re proposing a radically different culture or just fine tuning the current one they have no reason to get on the bandwagon (people really do hate change).

In the final analysis what you do will carry far more weight than anything you say about your culture. It boils down to your having the courage to walk your talk.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 23rd, 2006 at 2:08 pm and is filed under Culture, Motivation, Retention. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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