Have you ever wondered why a company’s management team might prefer to have employees work from the office instead of adopting a hybrid model? Or why leadership or team members of a company can find it challenging to provide or receive constructive feedback? These types of issues are usually traced back to bad management. In reality, they simply reflect workplace culture.
‘Culture eats strategy for breakfast.’ [1]Regardless of how well your strategy is put together, if your team is not aligned to the right culture, it’s highly unlikely that they will perform and achieve the aspired results. The dynamic behind successful groups is more than their individual skills. It relates to their behaviour towards one another as a group and their alignment and determination in achieving a shared goal.There's a widespread understanding that managing corporate culture is key to business success. Yet, few organizations articulate their corporate culture in a way in which words become a reality that moulds employee behaviour as intended.
What Culture Is and What It Isn’t
Culture is often mistaken for game rooms, bean bags, and pizza days. However, there is a deeper, more profound base towhat constitutes a 'culture' in any institution. Culture, from the Latin cultus, refers to care and cultivation. In the organizational context, the term refers to a set of relationships working towards a shared goal. It is a group of individual actions that—together—form group direction that moves towards achieving a common objective. For example, many companies claim that theyfoster a culture of innovation, but employees are hesitant to propose ideas in fear of backlash or being looked down on. This reveals a lack of psychologicalsafety and has a direct negative impact on corporate innovation.
Hence, contrary to the common misconception of 'culture fit,' culture is not defined by a person's identity, where they're from, or how they dress or talk. It is rather their contribution within a group setting to achieve a shared goal.
From Cultural Fit to Cultural Contribution
The notion that seeking to attract talent that would conform to an organizational culture will attract like-minded people does indeed create a homogenous group. On the flip side, it decreases innovation due to a lack of diverse mentalities and backgrounds.
Talent acquisition efforts should focus on cultural contribution and attracting diverse talents instead of focusing on similarity and fitting the existing mould. Additionally, recruitment and selection practices should be based on what the organization prioritizes in their selection criteria. Companies that identify behavioural competencies that reflect their values and behavioural competencies early on usually end up hiring relevant people who add value to the organization. The lack of clarity on whom to hire leaves room for bias and subjective selection.
For example, we have witnessed a case where a corporation repeatedly hired from the same limited talent pool. In a few years, they realised that their team was mostly educated in the same three universities, lived in a few central neighborhoods, and all had similar socio-economic backgrounds. When we introduced new interventions to attract diverse talent and the company adopted inclusive hiring techniques, they gained access to a broader, more diverse talent pool, uncovering that they have been overlooking potentially competent candidates who were previously disqualified in the screening phase.
The Impact of Culture on Performance and Retention
A strong organizational culture drives employee engagement, innovation, and business success. When organizational culture is aligned with company values and employee aspirations, organizations see higher retention, better productivity, and improved performance. On the other hand, a misaligned culture leads to disengagement, high turnover, and operational inefficiencies. Organizations that embed culture into leadership behaviors, decision-making, and daily interactions create environments where employees thrive and business goals are met. To foster a healthy culture, an organization needs to:
- Build safety: Providing individuals with a safe space where they can bring their whole selves to work and feel at ease expressing their opinions. This helps in generating bonds of belonging and identity validation. Organizations that foster a safe workplace culture are less likely to experience retention issues and high turnover due to fear-driven reasons. They are also more likely to foster a culture of accountability, where employees are trusted to work from home and still deliver results.
- Share vulnerability: When individuals trust each other, they’re open to sharing their vulnerable sides with one another. When people are less guarded, they are more likely to take risks together and to cooperate in challenging tasks. A key enabler to encourage employees to be vulnerable is leaders demonstrating it by admitting to their mistakes and giving credit where they should.
- Establish purpose: When people are vulnerable enough to trust each other beyond obvious risks, they can create narratives towards shared goals and values, which eventually leads them to success. Companies that regularly keep all team members informed with corporate strategy, outlining team and individual contributions to the bigger picture or the organization, have better engagement and satisfaction rates, and their employees share a sense of purpose in their daily work.
Fostering a Strong Organizational Culture
A strong culture is not just about the organizational values; it’s about how these values are manifested day-in day-out in the organization. It must be embedded in behaviours, learning, and communication for employees to feel engaged and motivated. Here are a few measures that ensure culture is alive in an organization:
- Walk the talk
Organizations where leaders are committed to corporate values and can orchestrate the relationships between team members are far better at delivering results and have lower attrition rates. Culture must be vivid in leadership behaviours so that they can then be cascaded to all team members. - Promote trust and open communication
In companies where there’s open communication and employees feel safe to speak their minds, leaders systematically encourage feedback and act upon it. They also encourage team members to act as ambassadors for this behaviour so that they encourage one another to speak up when they want to. - Encourage continuous learning
One of the key elements that strengthen a trust culture is encouraging the team to navigate their areas of development and navigate their vulnerabilities and share it with their managers. This way, they are encouraged to explore knowledge that they lack or personal development initiatives without fearing retaliation in performance appraisals. - Promoting inclusive workplace practices
‘Diversity is being invited to the party. Inclusion is being asked to dance.’ [2] Fostering an inclusive workplace is a result of the above enablers, i.e., trust, vulnerability, and shared purpose. In addition to providing equitable access to advancement opportunities. Only then will employees belong to the workplace and adopt the corporate strategy and values like their own.
Culture in Action Organizational culture isn’t just a buzzword; it’s the invisible force shaped by a set of beliefs and behaviours that define how decisions are made. Companies determined to build a strong and healthy culture don’t just state their values; they weave them into everything from strategic decisions to everyday interactions. Whether it’s a company’s reluctance to embrace hybrid work models or its struggles with open feedback channels, these challenges stem from deep cultural roots. A thriving culture is defined by leadership’s continuous commitment to its team, starting at the top and cascading throughout the organization.
References
The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups, Daniel Coyle
Build a Corporate Culture That Works. Harvard Business Review, Erin Meyer
[1] Peter Drucker, management consultant and writer
[2] Verna Myers, Keynote speaker, DEI consultant https://www.vernamyers.com/about-verna/