Nearly every executive that I get a chance to have candid discussions with admits that she or he wishes they could simply wave a magic wand and automatically change the culture (or some aspect of it) for at least some part of their organization. Culture is consistently the most elusive dimension of change that – if and when we establish the culture we need – will be a force multiplier. This multiplier accelerates the progress that brings strategy to life, breaks through blockers that thwart organizational change, and ultimately manifests the direction the organization is wanting to go.
In 2019, when writing about culture, I was surprised to learn that there is an abundance of articles about culture. Whether it was organizational or corporate culture, changing culture, assessing your culture, I could barely get through two or three articles before another culture-related article came up.
Today, there is no shortage of pandemic articles -some talking about moving back to working on-site and some talking about a hybrid workplace.
In conjunction with these, I want to take the chance to share a few thoughts about the reinvention of culture during a time when we are reinventing everything else.
How do we Define Culture?
To start off, I was curious how our friends at Merriam-Webster define culture.
Merriam-Webster defines culture as:
a: the customary beliefs, social forms, and material traits of a racial, religious, or social group also: the characteristic features of everyday existence (such as diversions or a way of life) shared by people in a place or time
b: the set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices that characterizes an institution or organization (e.g., a corporate culture focused on the bottom line)
How do we Experience Culture?
When I read these two definitions, I think about how entire cultures or subcultures may emphasize excellence in a certain sport, academic area, music or art. The subject they choose to emphasize is viewed as important throughout that society, becoming expected and celebrated.
I’m also reminded of our clients: some we have worked with that had an amazing culture and others I have worked for (or been exposed to) that have left an impression as they have developed or pursued a differentiated culture.
In the mid-’80s, I played football for Coach Bill Mallory. Coach Mallory came from a legacy of coaches that were referred to as the “Cradle of Coaches”, having a reputation of being successful, with a hard-nosed, no-nonsense style of coaching. Coach Mallory, without question, established a culture for our team. The culture that he, and his coaching staff set, consistently played on the message “you all may not be the most talented, but you will never get beat because you were unprepared enough or not tough enough”. In very old school fashion, we worked out hard, practiced even harder, had very physical scrimmages, watched countless hours of film, and then did it all over again. On the field you didn’t take a play off, played through pain, and did things you didn’t think were possible.
His message was reinforced during every practice, film session, and strength and conditioning workout. That year our team was fortunate to have won our conference championship. We were invited to one of eleven bowl games (unlike the countless number that exists today). As a ‘reward’ for this, we had “two-a-day” live contact practices to prepare for the bowl game, mostly indoor at the basketball stadium. I vividly remember a time when, before we flew to California for our bowl game, we had a ‘light workout’ that involved a three-mile run before taking the bus to the airport. Coach Mallory ran every inch of that with us.
This was our culture. We believed it because we lived it, and it worked. We were prepared, we worked harder than the competition, and we developed a tenacity and resilience that gave us a competitive advantage. That was our brand and it paid off.
After graduation, I accepted an offer and started my career at the largest of the ‘Big Four’ consulting firms. Their culture to clients emphasized privacy and confidentiality as was illustrated by the firm’s logo. But internally, on a day-to-day basis, it was a culture of “work hard and then work some more”. Unfortunately, even though I worked with awesome co-workers, managers, and partners, there was no balance. It did not take long to see really talented individuals leave and well-balanced, intelligent consultants develop a sharp edge that diminished the effectiveness of our team’s performance.
A Culture Defined by Groupon Speed
After starting TSI, we had the opportunity to consult with a company who, at that time, was touted as the fastest growing company in history: Groupon. We, seemingly overnight, needed to select a new ERP system that would be the global ERP, ultimately enabling the company to file an IPO in a very short time frame.
With the senior leaders, TSI collaborated to develop the mantra of ‘Groupon Speed’ and, as related to this project, developed a sense of results-orientation with the notion of good now is better than perfect later. TSI defined Groupon’s forward-looking requirements, a short list of software vendors, and selected a new ERP in a very short timeframe. We talked about this mantra of ‘Groupon Speed’ in nearly every meeting when we felt things were getting bogged down.
Shortly after the previous developments, our talented project team helped implement NetSuite ERP in five countries in six weeks and twenty-six countries in three months. ‘Groupon speed’ was our culture. We talked about it, but more importantly, we lived it and used it as a tool to make decisions, quickly and accurately.
Four Things to Consider
After reflecting on my experiences within multiple groups, I have developed four questions to consider when thinking about culture and culture change within your organization.
- At the risk of stating the obvious, culture change cannot simply be lip service. It must come from an authoritative source, and it must be put in practice consistently. Do you have this consistent implementation of culture change within your organization?
- The organization must know what ‘price’ it is willing to pay to achieve that culture. In all the examples I shared, there were times when there was a clash of cultures. The new and the old way, or the desired culture and the preference of one or more individuals were not aligned. As your organization evolves its culture, how will you address the conflict that invariably will arise?
- Before things get tough (and when going through culture change they ALWAYS do), it is important to be laser focused on the end results that you are striving for. Monitor to the culture and be self-aware in the event you are getting unintended consequences (note one or two of the examples I shared). When things get tough, you will need to decide whether you need to tweak your approach, or double down and stick to the desired, new culture standards you have set. You will need to fight today’s ‘cancel culture’. Realize that to be successful, you must allow the new culture to have time to grow roots and overtake distracting subcultures that seek to drag it down. Does your organization have the ‘stick-to-it-ness’ to withstand resistance?
- As the organization grows, you will need to be intentional and hire to the new culture. In conjunction with this, you need to find a new home for individuals who are unwilling to embrace the new culture. As one executive used to say “you are either on are bus, or under it”. Harsh, but the organization lived it. While the passion shouldn’t be aggressive, how will you keep the right people on the new culture bus and allow the wrong people to get off?
Do you have other things that you and your organization consider? We would love to hear them! Let us know what has worked or failed within your organization in the comments below.
For other related articles on culture, check out these posts on TSI Insights:
Change Culture by Not Changing Culture
How Does a Culture of Change Turn Resistance into Growth?
