The future of culture - how culture starts at the top
Nick Robeson
Connecting great companies with great leaders. Managing Partner, United Kingdom & Ireland.
A quick Google of the phrase "Organisational Culture" returns over 52 million results. Culture is big business. Culture is as influential as the business itself because it IS the business.
We’ve seen massive changes over the past few years when it comes to changing entrenched cultures. Look at what happened recently in the US at companies such as Uber, which had to overhaul the entire organisation to reinvigorate a damaged workplace culture.
Problems such as ones experienced by companies like Uber are the top of the culture-crushing iceberg. There might be many other, more nuanced, reasons that you need to adapt, modify or change your company culture for a more positive workplace, but how to do it - that is the question.
As leaders, we need to take a look in the mirror at our behaviours before we ask our workforce to change theirs.
It starts at the top.
Organisational cultural change comes from concrete and noticeable changes in leadership behaviour: what they do, who they hire, who they ask to move on, who they listen to and emulate, where they spend their time, what they talk about in meetings, what they measure, and how they invest the company’s money.
It’s easy to think that building a culture is about the behaviour of others, not how you act as a leader. But I believe that culture change begins when leaders start to model the behaviour they want the organisation to emulate.
Look in the mirror
As leaders, we need to take a look in the mirror at our behaviours before we ask our workforce to change theirs.
If you are arriving at 6:00 am and leaving at 8:00 pm every day, yet talk about work-life balance, your employees are not going to buy it.
If customer happiness is the last thing on the board meeting agenda, then that is where it stays, last.
Reframing culture to become part and parcel of everything we do in an organisation from the board down to the mailroom is the only way real change occurs.
Culture can’t come from employees if the agenda at the top is different, and culture can’t exist at all if employees don’t feel ownership and the desire to bring it to life!
How have you reinvented culture in your workplace? Who is responsible for making changes? Are you sick of nothing changing? I’d love to hear from you.
Connecting great companies with great leaders. Managing Partner, United Kingdom & Ireland.
4yKevin Ringrose and you have had some interesting bosses :). We certainly see it improving. Authentic leadership. The diversity agenda has certainly played a major role in shifting the dial but more to do!
Delivers high EVA turnarounds & transformations as Interim CEO | Expert in manufacturing, agri-food, FMCG/CPG, materials & logistics industries for P.E./VC, private & quoted companies | Indep. Dir./Non-Exec, Chair of IIM
4yGood points well made Nick, especially in a larger corporate scenario. Having said that, the approach can fit elsewhere. The CEO and board definitely need to set the scene. There should be a clear statement of 'how people should do things round here'. This needs to be communicated and aligned behaviour 'rewarded'. Non-aligned behaviours need pointing out and correcting. Everyone has an equal stake in maintaining the agreed way of working - or culture. We all impact on one another. I agree that the more senior the person in the organisation, the more visible they tend to be and therefore the more important it is for them to 'conform', or ensure they demonstrate culturally acceptable attitudes and behaviours. Culture should not be seen as something that is frozen in aspic. Organisations change: they grow and some grow very rapidly. This means a lot more people are needed and quickly. They may well grow internationally, so different national cultures are added to the mix. The recruitment process will try to assess 'fit' - often a moral hazard! All this puts pressure on how things are done round here as the original group who set the culture up is diluted or perhaps leaves/retires, etc. So where is the driving force or will to nurture the culture? How is this modified to keep true to the original intent, yet evolve to take account of the changing shape of the organisation? Failure to handle this actively will apply stress to the organisational strategy which needs to remain aligned with the operating culture of there will be unhealthy disruption and loss of direction and performance. Cultural governance needs to be embedded into the core organisational processes that ensure it receives ongoing, constant attention (don't hive it off into HR - everyone is a stakeholder). Rather like a good marriage, familiarity should not result in complacency. Reward is brought through continual growth and improvement built on mutual respect and trust. Do unto others....
Certified EOS Implementer® | Facilitator and Coach Helping Tune Teams 🎺
4yThe saying goes what goes on at the top goes for the rest of the organisation ðŸ‘
Interim HRD with a strong track record of adding value, leading others and delivering change
4yNever a truer word spoken Nick. The paradox question is “Are the behaviours that get CEOs to the top, the behaviours that will then deliver the kind of corporate culture you describe so well?†I have seen very little evidence of this alignment in my 40+ years trying to lead and change culture, and even the most culture - centric leaders I’ve ever worked with can so often be derailed by external stakeholder pressures, market forces and /or socio, economic or political factors that they are so often powerless to control. On the positive side though, as the great Steve Perry sang “Don’t Stop Believing.......†😎