Culture is another one of those words that we throw around a lot, like “relationships” or “leadership” (more on those later); But what does “culture” actually mean? And what does it mean in business?
According to Merriam Webster, culture is defined as “the set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices that characterizes an institution or organization.” Right…. but in business, what does that look like and how do we create it?
Note: if you are a member of a purely transactional, strictly revenue-based and motivated organization with a “Boiler Room” mentality (think the movie The Wolf of Wall Street), you enjoy it, and it suits you, you are encouraged to stop reading and delete this email now! No judgement at all; These are necessary components to our business community, but these are not the experiences we’ll be talking about. So, until next time for those of you who do.
For those of you who are sticking with us, and who are interested in building organizations curious about invigorating common goals, common history, business community, focus, and vision, we invite you to please read on.
Last weekend, I was scrolling through photos on my phone, delighting in the memories from as far back as 2015 (it was fun!), when it occurred to me: apart from dedicated scrapbookers and devotees of Shutterfly (my heros!), who among us actually takes the time to print hard copies of these moments in time, frame them to memorialize the joys we were experiencing, and display them in places of honor in our homes and offices? (Seeing photos of me and my son, my cherished mentor, or birthday parties with friends never fails to make me smile!) I was reminded of the boxes of actual photos I have in my basement from a pre-digital time, a veritable personal history in boxes - my story, my culture. So how can we adopt this in business?
There is a multi-generational, multi-disciplined, privately-held brewery here in Colorado with a beautifully curated and maintained archive of its evolution. It has survived world wars, Prohibition (where it pivoted to a manufacturing plant that fashioned scientific and chemical products made from porcelain in order to survive), the Great Depression, politics, and family intrigue. Those of us lucky enough to have had a personal tour of the ceramics headquarters have seen an entire conference room dedicated to the archives of its progression through photos, product examples, documents etc., and heard stories about why this or that happened, what the motivations were, and what the company’s vision is for the future is - all told by executives who know the story by heart - because ALL of the leadership knows the stories by heart. There is a shared understanding, indeed appreciation, of WHY the company exists, HOW the company came to be the giant it is, and WHERE the company intends to go. This institutional and leadership-attested knowledge permeates through their entire reporting structure and, in some form or fashion, is adopted by the worldwide team. Culture. Of course, the company is not perfect, none are, but the organization, conceptually, illustrates the meaning of business culture: “the set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices that characterizes an institution or organization”.
So many of us become immersed in the minutiae of daily tasks, demands, deadlines etc, etc, etc, that we simply forget to take a breath, think about what attracted us to our companies in the first place, ask the questions of senior leadership (those with historical perspective) of why they’re there. What do they love about the organization? What keeps them coming back every day? And senior leadership forgets to tell their stories to the more junior professionals: their evolution, their professional trajectory, the organizations' story. Business enterprises are built with human beings, people. Sharing and communicating our professional attitudes, values and goals through “war stories,” successes, frustrations, personnel kerfuffles, and individuals’ recountings all create a whole in the aggregate - the accumulated sum of the parts: a company culture. By failing to create the space and time devoted to having these conversations and exchanges, we run the risk of losing that shared vision. These exchanges certainly don’t need to be cumbersome or another “to do,” but can simply be a brief memory shared walking to a meeting or over lunch (when we can have lunch together again!), or a chat waiting for the elevator. It takes time, commitment, intention and dedication to the common goal of building relationships and links which join us together as an organization. Taking the time to talk with coworkers, getting to know the individuals who work there - at every level - learning about the company, hearing the stories, appreciating the history, and finding commonalities in work, views and vision, all are stepping stones to creating a cohesive biography of the whole, the culture. We all want to be a part of a shared community, to be valued, to be recognized and appreciated. These are the hard copies of an organization, its legacy, intangible though they may be, and they live on through each and every member of your organization.
Let’s try not to tuck them away in a box in our proverbial basements.
Let's try to harness that desire for a common society at work and let's see what happens? Hmmmm?
Until next time…...