In a 2021 survey of 500 CEOs conducted by Heidrick & Struggles, “82% of CEOs said they had made culture a key priority over the past three years.” Although culture has become one of the watchwords in business strategy, all too often, it ends up being simply an empty slogan, a poster hanging on the wall, a motto repeated with good intention but without feeling or comprehension. As a result, “culture” becomes an empty word, a fad.
We can’t successfully transform culture unless we define it—unless we understand what we really mean when we say “culture.” That in and of itself is a difficult task! In 2013, Michael D. Watkins posted this question on LinkedIn and received over 300 responses, with no two alike. In a Harvard Business Review article on what he saw and learned, Watkins writes, “While there is universal agreement that (1) [culture] exists, and (2) that it plays a crucial role in shaping behavior in organizations, there is little consensus on what organizational culture actually is, never mind how it influences behavior and whether it is something leaders can change.” With this lack of clarity around culture, it’s no wonder so many companies have trouble clearly defining and integrating it into a fully aligned organization!
At its core, culture is not something you can see; it is something that is felt in an organization. Culture is the experience employees have each day at work. It’s how your customers view you. And it’s the basis for how decisions are made and how employees’ energy is directed every day. In a company with a strong, aligned culture, decisions are seen as fair even if they are tough, and employees’ energy is focused on high performance and delivering results. It becomes the default way the organization reacts and responds, and it sets the framework through which all business is conducted. Culture is an organization’s default attitude, social code, and behavior.
If I had to define culture in one sentence, it would be this: An organization’s culture is the behavior of its leaders and the behavior leaders tolerate from their employees.
In my work helping organizations transform their culture, we break culture down into four elements: Purpose, Vision, Values, and Strategy.
A company’s Purpose, sometimes referred to as its “mission,” is what the company is at its core. It’s why they exist in a broader context. Your Purpose statement is a statement of who you are, not what you do. It’s your higher purpose for the good of society that you fulfill by the services you provide.
Your Vision is a statement of where you want to be— the future state you are aiming for.
Your Purpose and Vision are the basis for your Values and Strategies. Strategy aligns the “what,” while values align the “how.”
Values are the way culture is put into practice. They are your code of conduct, the characteristics you want employees to abide by, and how you want them to behave. They are a set of rules around what is expected of you as part of the company.
If Values are about how employees are expected to behave, Strategies are about what they are going to do and what you are going to accomplish as a company. Strategies come directly out of your Vision; together, they answer the question: “What do we need to accomplish in order to achieve the Vision we have for the company?” Your Vision is the True North toward which your Strategies should move your company.
The fact is, all companies have a culture, whether it is created intentionally and clearly articulated or not. Ask yourself: Do I want to intentionally design my culture to create employee and business success?
Creating a great organizational culture is not just a nice or humane thing to do—it is good business. When culture is intentionally designed and experienced, it can lead to results beyond a leader’s wildest dreams.