Companies with great cultures outperform those who don’t, by a lot. They have employees that thrive, are healthy, grow, rest, strive and constantly improve. Good cultures foster loyalty, they reduce employee turnover, and they create organizational resilience.
The original meaning of culture
Traditionally, the word culture refers to the social behaviour, ideas, customs, and norms found within human societies.
It refers to the way people from the same group think and behave. A culture develops in any community where people are bound together, like an office or an organization.
Culture and social groups have a specific evolutionary function. Humans are social beings and are hard-wired to fit into groups or tribes. Being accepted as part of a group affords you safety. It also contributes to your identity and how you see yourself.
What is organizational culture?
Organizational culture refers to the way in which people at the organization behave, the way they conduct themselves, the way they make decisions and the way they interact with each other. Within this organizational culture, people are expected to conform to certain agreed standards and are expected to support what the group believes and values.
Cultures can be good or positive, but they can also be bad or toxic. Good, healthy cultures enable the individuals within the group to thrive and can make star performers out of employees that may have performed poorly elsewhere.
Healthy cultures contribute to organizational resilience as they enable employees to be healthy, to grow, to rest, to strive and to constantly improve. A good culture will also foster loyalty in employees, reducing employee turnover.
In contrast, toxic cultures cause the individuals within the group to burn out, become exhausted, perform below par, and lose motivation. A toxic culture can also cause good people to behave in ways that are out of character for them.
How are cultures created?
Cultures are formed by encouraging, discouraging, and tolerating behaviors. For example, if sharing ideas is encouraged, more people will share more ideas with each other. If laughing and making jokes in the open-plan office area is discouraged, less people will laugh and make jokes. If tardiness or rudeness is tolerated, more people will be late for meetings and will be rude to each other.
Many people believe cultures are created organically and therefore, cannot be changed. This points to a lack of understanding of what culture REALLY is. If cultures are created by encouraging, discouraging and tolerating behaviors, then we can change culture by encouraging, discouraging and tolerating DIFFERENT behaviors.
Example: Creating an accountability culture
Let’s say there is a lack of accountability in your culture. When you ask someone to do something, they just never seem to follow through. How will we go about changing that culture?
First we need to create visibility of who is supposed to be doing what and by when. So in your next team meeting, you end the meeting by drawing up the list of actions, who is responsible for each action and when the due date is. Agree with everyone that, if they cannot make the due dates that THEY committed to, they need to notify you as soon as they realize they will miss the task due date.
In next week or next month’s team meeting, you start the meeting by looking at the list. You ask each person to give you feedback on what they have achieved and, if they did not complete their task and they did not renegotiate a new due date with you, why that happened. Having to explain in front of a whole group of people why a task that was promised was not delivered, or not communicated, will create a bit of social pressure to behave better going forward.
You will have to be consistent, but before long, people will start to take accountability, commit to their tasks and get things done.
This article has given you the fundamentals of culture change, but there is a much more methodical approach you can take to change your organization’s culture for the better. If you would like a practical blueprint for changing your culture for the better, check out my Culture Blueprint course. In it I take you through a complete, end to end culture change that you can apply practically in your organization from day one.
