The ‘culture equation’ can be solved in two simple steps. But first, what are three key reasons why culture still eats strategy for breakfast?
Reason 1: A great culture creates great people.
As a leader your number one priority is to support your people. Bar the obvious humanitarian reason, team members that are supported, feel safe, and given opportunities to grow, perform better. They are more productive, resilient, healthier, and happier. All of the above helps them achieve their goals, which in turn deliver business results.
A great culture is a safe culture where Individuals can be themselves, take risks, and challenge authority. In other words, an environment of psychological safety where they can bring more of themselves to the workplace, think outside of the box, and not be afraid to question decisions they feel will be detrimental to them or the business. By creating and nurturing a great culture you create that environment 💥.
The flipside is that a psychologically unsafe culture creates a toxic workplace environment that not only reduces performance and productivity, but it also increases absenteeism and burnout, ultimately negatively affecting the wellbeing of your people (the very people you as a leader are tasked with supporting and growing).
The bottom line is that if you are supporting an unhealthy and unsafe workplace culture, then you are harming the very people it's your job to help.
Reason 2: Organisations are complex.
Often organisations have matrix structures; people and teams deal with complex situations and challenges that can take effort and time to solve. Due to this complexity, a strong and positive culture will ensure that your team operates and behaves in a way that is aligned with your organisational values and ways of working. This is important because when they’re deep in the swamp and not sure how to get out, they choose the best path. The path that squarely lines up with your norms of behaviour and values.
A simple example of this in action is that if you have a supportive culture, and one of your values is collaboration, then when the sh#t hits the fan for one of your team members, the expectation is that rather than going solo to try and fix the problem they reach out for help.
Reason 3: Relationships are critical to improve performance.
Business is all about relationships. And in a relationship the more connected you feel to each other, the more you enjoy being in the relationship. The more you enjoy your work relationships, the more you enjoy work (duh). The more you enjoy work, the better work you do. The better work you do, the better results you get!
A healthy culture develops and supports healthy relationships, which ultimately deliver healthy profits. Enough said.
Now let’s shift gears a little and discuss the two steps any organisation can take to solve the ‘culture equation’?
Step 1: Take culture as seriously as your financial metrics and goals.
This is a classic case of too many companies focusing on the ‘what’ rather than the ‘how’. The 'how' is always more important than the 'what' - the end never justifies the means.
The great thing is, if you get the culture equation right the means deliver the end 📈. I.e., supporting and monitoring norms of behaviour and organisational values, gives you the best chance of achieving those all-important financial metrics that shareholders care so much about.
Oh, and you’ll have more fun doing it. Fun? Yup, fun… Work’s supposed to be fun, right? And working with people who have the same mission and similar values to you - cultural alignment - is much more fun than the alternative.
The key takeaway is that great cultures deliver great results, so prioritise your culture over everything 😊.
Step 2: Treat culture like those financial metrics and goals; by monitoring and measuring it.
Culture isn’t something that you create, then slap a ‘Our Culture and Values Poster’ on the wall in the office. Then forget about until the CEO stands up at the quarterly Town Hall and reads off the ‘culture card’ before the donuts are handed out 🍩to rapturous applause.
Once created, culture must be reinforced and nurtured. You monitor and measure it so it can grow. How do we do that?
You implement your own version of the 11 actions below that any organisation can successfully embed:
Build culture into your hiring process. When hiring new team members, I recommend prioritising cultural and values-fit over everything.
Early on, keep the ‘culture focus’ by including culture sessions in your onboarding process.
Use visual cues / reminders (both digital and physical) to reinforce key cultural and behavioural messaging.
Create safe feedback opportunities / communication channels for team members to share their questions or concerns about cultural / behavioural elements and issues (bottom up).
Ensure your leadership and management role model the right behaviours and values (top down).
Create a communication cadence that shares stories celebrating culture.
Include culture / values as part of your performance development and management process.
Try short-term / fun rewards for team members that exhibit behaviours that reinforce our values and healthy culture.
Distribute the responsibility for nurturing culture throughout the organisation.
During company-wide events start and finish with culture (a few words can make a big difference).
Have standalone cultural events that reinforce and build your values and culture (can be digital, hybrid, and in-person)
I guarantee if you invest in the above 11 actions, your culture will blossom and importantly support the growth of your people and business. And whilst it takes time and effort to build and nurture culture, if like Peter Drucker, you believe that culture eats strategy for breakfast, it’s worth it 🚀.
About the Author:
Gareth is one of Australia’s foremost experts on happiness and habits, having dedicated 6,000+ hours researching human behaviour over seven years. During that time, he has coached and trained more than 2,000 people from 150+ organisations, bootstrapped a startup, and navigated personal challenges - summarised by the line: 'four funerals and a wedding.' The culmination of his research and lived experience is The Happiness Flywheel and the 5Habits App.
Improving Culture with The Happiness Flywheel:
Boost business performance, employee wellbeing, and team culture with The Happiness Flywheel 3-Step Program. Interested in The Happiness Flywheel for your workplace wellbeing program to increase happiness, boost productivity, improve collaboration, and reduce absenteeism? Message me or email me @ gareth@mindhabit.com.au
Thank You:
Thanks for taking the time to read this article, I hope that you got value from it. If you did, I’d love you to give it a 👍 and share it with your network. If you’d like any further tips on happiness, habits, or communication feel free to message me or simply follow me on LinkedIn.
All the best, Gareth
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