Golden Oldies: Ducks In A Row: Cultural Support
by Miki SaxonIt’s amazing to me, but looking back on more than a decade of writing I find posts that still impress, with information that is as useful now as when it was written. Golden Oldies is a collection of what I consider some of the best posts during that time.
For decades, ‘culture’ didn’t get much respect. Many managers considered it ephemeral; smoke and mirrors served up by consultants focused more on their bottom line than their client’s. Today, the critical importance of company culture is a generally accepted management subject. However, creating a great culture isn’t enough; it needs a solid infrastructure to sustain it and keep it flexible as the company grows. That said, the most important action any boss takes is found in the final sentence of this post. Read other Golden Oldies here.
When you build an edifice that you want to withstand the stresses of everyday living as well as crisis and catastrophe it’s important to include structural supports in the design.
The same is true for corporate culture and I call them “infrastructure building blocks” or IBBs.
There are three categories of IBBs—philosophy, attitude/style, and policy. There are many things that can be included, but here is a list of the most basic ones, some are fairly self-explanatory, others include commentary and links where possible.
The philosophy category includes
- Fairness: pay parity, merit promotions, egalitarian policies,
- Open communications: not a technology function, but a part of MAP.
- Business 101: basic information to reduce/eliminate naiveté, fuzzy or rose-colored views of the company’s business.
- No surprises
- Pragmatism
The attitude/style category includes:
- Manager vigilance: a constant awareness of what is going on and a willingness to deal with the reality of it immediately.
- Management-by-walking-around
The policy category is the concrete expression of the Philosophy and Attitude/Style IBBs. Just as the Preamble to the Constitution delineates the doctrines underlying it, each Policy IBB supports one or more of the IBBs described above.
Policy IBBs should be reasonably broad—macro rather than micro—since they support a flexible process, not ossified bureaucracy. They are your most potent infrastructure—the most tangible and, therefore, the hardest to corrupt or ignore, but also the most dangerous, because they can turn into bureaucracy in the blink of an eye if you’re not careful.
- Business Mission Statement (BMS)
- Cultural Mission Statement (CMS)
- Dual Mission Statement (DMS)
- Open-door
- Management by Box: actually a way to set your people free
- Dual Ladder Career Path: a series of hands-on positions that equate straight across the board with management positions.
- Hiring process: transparent and painless and easy to use for both candidates and hiring managers.
- Stock bonus plan (or similar)
- Sales incentives
- Reviews: Done correctly, they encourage personal growth, make negative behavior much harder to conceal and can even act as a screening tool during interviews.
- Surveys: useful for discovering problems, attitudes, product directions, company standing, etc. as perceived by employees and selected outsiders.
One caveat when implementing these and other approaches: lead by example; both managers and workers will do as you do, not as you say.
Image credit: flickr
