Culture Eats Strategy

There is a phrase, attributed to business guru Peter Drucker which says ‘Culture eats strategy for breakfast’ I don’t disagree but I do add that ‘Culture gets it’s appetite from Purpose’. Taking either a desire to disrupt internally, or indeed to counter external disruption, the strength of your organizational culture will dominate your ability to deliver your strategy. The culture of your organization, how you invest in creating it and how others embrace is recognized as the single biggest factor in determining such organizational success.

What we are trying to create in a purposeful organization, is a universally appreciated culture, where people have a collective state of mind, knowing why the organization exists, what it does, where they understand their role in it and why they are proud of being a part. It is where, through a combined emotional bond, the group; team, organization, have a tangible sense of unity and positive interaction between themselves and with their necessary stakeholders. It is that sense of the positive which amplifies purpose in your organization’s positioning to the world.

This “culture” has to be recognized as a construct; a product of our individual creativity and imagination. Culture will emerge either by default or design and, whether positive or negative, it will be directly present from verbal statements and other measurable behaviours through to hidden and less obvious actions. To ensure success, it is vital to give thought to helping design what is in your mind as the ideal purposeful culture for your business. That is the golden thread which will permeate every aspect of your operation and shape the organization you want.

How you create this culture will be based on your own clarity of purpose and your ability to voice it and then walk the talk, with your personal practices setting the tone and the expectations and standards of others. In managing this, it is best to keep in mind that people are most interested in why you are doing this; your own motivation. You will then need to explain how you will do it and then what you will do. It is important to have these clear and distinct in your own mind. Then you can start building the practices and the culture.

Culture is critical, You can’t have a successful purpose strategy unless your culture is hungry for it. Your culture is your recipe for success because it is what will drive recruitment of the best long-term client and customer relationships and performance. What will make up your particular culture may well be quirky, shaped by your products or brand characteristics, but equally by your location, traditions and the good practice you have been a part of elsewhere. However particular to you, it must be fit for purpose and so how you invest in creating it and how others embrace it will be key to determining your success. In this chapter, we will consider how such a culture is created through practices, rather than simply listing the type of policies one might establish.

You must create purposeful practices within your organization. Purpose is what shapes corporate culture and its character and it is much stronger than simply a set of corporate policies. Purpose power is effectively realized not by people being attracted by what policies are in place but by how people behave, the sense of mission they are on and the collective ideals. Ask yourself: are people drawn to your organization because of what you stand for?

I want to share with you a very useful model created by Prof Geert Hofstede which I often use as the framework for some of my work on this area. He conducted what is possibly the largest assessment of how culture is crafted by values, both nationally and corporately, studying a large database of employees collected by IBM between from 70 countries between 1967-1973. Many have followed the research with additional developments but I share here his ‘onion’ model as a simple graphic which can be easily interpreted for your own assessment. I like the onion as a simple way of analyzing how various practices create the culture.

In short:

Values: This is at the core of your purpose and governance, how you behave and what you hold dear.

Rituals: These help the group bond. They may consist of a weekly afternoon tea and catch up, a way of celebrating success, in-group terminology or fun things that happen by routine.

Heroes: Utilise this not as a means of championing individuals over others. Instead, what you want to identify is what will be recognized as heroic behaviour. What do you do when someone goes that extra mile to solve difficult issues?

Symbols: The most significant symbol you will have in your business is actually the brand and how it is manifested actually helps motivate and support the culture. However, such symbols could also include the type of photographs you use on your material, colour, particular language and graphics which have recognition elsewhere, which can affect perceptions of your own.

Practices: You will see that cutting across each ring is the practices which you will establish. These include your language, what time you set aside for certain activities and how you react to circumstances.

Summary: Think through the Onion, peel back your own or your team’s understanding of what is required and what is perhaps already in place.

Creating purposeful practices will help foster an environment where you can work to unleash purpose within others in your organization. This is what we call unleashing purpose in others and it is the sixth and final step to realizing the purpose power within your organization.

For advice on purposeful cultures – get in touch

John O’Brien MBE
EMEA Managing Partner ONE HUNDRED
Executive Editor ONE Magazine
Twitter: @johnwritlarge
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnobrienwritlarge/

Previous article

Next article

Culture Eats Strategy

There is a phrase, attributed to business guru Peter Drucker which says ‘Culture eats strategy for breakfast’ I don’t disagree but I do add that ‘Culture gets it’s appetite from Purpose’. Taking either a desire to disrupt internally, or indeed to counter external disruption, the strength of your organizational culture will dominate your ability to deliver your strategy. The culture of your organization, how you invest in creating it and how others embrace is recognized as the single biggest factor in determining such organizational success.

What we are trying to create in a purposeful organization, is a universally appreciated culture, where people have a collective state of mind, knowing why the organization exists, what it does, where they understand their role in it and why they are proud of being a part. It is where, through a combined emotional bond, the group; team, organization, have a tangible sense of unity and positive interaction between themselves and with their necessary stakeholders. It is that sense of the positive which amplifies purpose in your organization’s positioning to the world.

This “culture” has to be recognized as a construct; a product of our individual creativity and imagination. Culture will emerge either by default or design and, whether positive or negative, it will be directly present from verbal statements and other measurable behaviours through to hidden and less obvious actions. To ensure success, it is vital to give thought to helping design what is in your mind as the ideal purposeful culture for your business. That is the golden thread which will permeate every aspect of your operation and shape the organization you want.

How you create this culture will be based on your own clarity of purpose and your ability to voice it and then walk the talk, with your personal practices setting the tone and the expectations and standards of others. In managing this, it is best to keep in mind that people are most interested in why you are doing this; your own motivation. You will then need to explain how you will do it and then what you will do. It is important to have these clear and distinct in your own mind. Then you can start building the practices and the culture.

Culture is critical, You can’t have a successful purpose strategy unless your culture is hungry for it. Your culture is your recipe for success because it is what will drive recruitment of the best long-term client and customer relationships and performance. What will make up your particular culture may well be quirky, shaped by your products or brand characteristics, but equally by your location, traditions and the good practice you have been a part of elsewhere. However particular to you, it must be fit for purpose and so how you invest in creating it and how others embrace it will be key to determining your success. In this chapter, we will consider how such a culture is created through practices, rather than simply listing the type of policies one might establish.

You must create purposeful practices within your organization. Purpose is what shapes corporate culture and its character and it is much stronger than simply a set of corporate policies. Purpose power is effectively realized not by people being attracted by what policies are in place but by how people behave, the sense of mission they are on and the collective ideals. Ask yourself: are people drawn to your organization because of what you stand for?

I want to share with you a very useful model created by Prof Geert Hofstede which I often use as the framework for some of my work on this area. He conducted what is possibly the largest assessment of how culture is crafted by values, both nationally and corporately, studying a large database of employees collected by IBM between from 70 countries between 1967-1973. Many have followed the research with additional developments but I share here his ‘onion’ model as a simple graphic which can be easily interpreted for your own assessment. I like the onion as a simple way of analyzing how various practices create the culture.

In short:

Values: This is at the core of your purpose and governance, how you behave and what you hold dear.

Rituals: These help the group bond. They may consist of a weekly afternoon tea and catch up, a way of celebrating success, in-group terminology or fun things that happen by routine.

Heroes: Utilise this not as a means of championing individuals over others. Instead, what you want to identify is what will be recognized as heroic behaviour. What do you do when someone goes that extra mile to solve difficult issues?

Symbols: The most significant symbol you will have in your business is actually the brand and how it is manifested actually helps motivate and support the culture. However, such symbols could also include the type of photographs you use on your material, colour, particular language and graphics which have recognition elsewhere, which can affect perceptions of your own.

Practices: You will see that cutting across each ring is the practices which you will establish. These include your language, what time you set aside for certain activities and how you react to circumstances.

Summary: Think through the Onion, peel back your own or your team’s understanding of what is required and what is perhaps already in place.

Creating purposeful practices will help foster an environment where you can work to unleash purpose within others in your organization. This is what we call unleashing purpose in others and it is the sixth and final step to realizing the purpose power within your organization.

For advice on purposeful cultures – get in touch

John O’Brien MBE
EMEA Managing Partner ONE HUNDRED
Executive Editor ONE Magazine
Twitter: @johnwritlarge
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnobrienwritlarge/

Previous article

Next article