Culture: Your Killer App

Culture is Everywhere

We listen to culture wars on talk radio. We study foreign cultures in school. We live the cultures of our communities. But few cultures are more complex or poorly understood than the ones we find at work. Indeed, few companies address their culture in formal ways. Perhaps they hesitate because they perceive culture as too soft to matter or too difficult to define. But winning companies understand the power of organizational culture, and they manage it to drive real value.

Doers, Not Thinkers

Recently, a friend and HR executive solicited a pitch for an assessment. Her CEO wanted to know the effectiveness of the company’s onboarding process. At the onset of the session, the CEO lamented, “Every time we meet, you ask a lot of questions. I hate that! Around here, we’re doers, not thinkers.” The comment spoke volumes about her organization’s culture. As a high-tech firm, populated by engineers, it wasn’t that the employees didn’t think -- far from it. They think in diagrams and snippets of code. Rapidly designing and testing solutions, discarding what didn’t work, building on what did. They were doers -- and successful ones at that.

Organizational cultures are complex and multifaceted things. Breaking the concept into important elements can help. Here are a few components to consider:

● Shared Beliefs: Values that guide the organization.

● Structures: Formal and informal organizing principles.

● Norms of Behavior: Accepted methods of interacting with others.

● Rituals, Symbols, Lore: Elements that reflect on the organization in a unique way.

● Systems and Networks: Formal and informal reinforcing mechanisms.

● Emotions: The emotional responses that the culture triggers in employees.

A senior HR executive simplified it like this: “Culture is the set of behaviors that are tolerated and rewarded by the organization.” In layman’s terms, organizational culture is the way things get done.

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