Culture is fundamental to the success of any organisation. Because people make the key decisions in every business, how they behave and the values they hold have a huge impact. However, changing culture isn’t simply a matter of implementing a new project or programme.
So, let’s assume our culture needs an upgrade or renewal. What comes next? We need to create the right environment for culture to thrive. And to understand the necessities of embedding good culture we’ve created its A to E.
Expression
Let’s start at our goal. Our end point is to have a great Expression of culture. This will catapult a business towards its purpose and strategy.
From here we explore the A+B+C+D of Culture implementation.
Architect
We inhabit a culture like we inhabit the built environment; living and breathing inside it. So, we architect it rather than simply design it. Like a building, culture has a profound impact on how people work, play, relax, learn, etc. Culture also has the enduring, tangible impact that a building has. Don’t wait for culture to happen – we must make sure we know what we want, what it looks like and how it fits the context of the business.
Believe
To make a success of culture, architecting it is not enough. We have to believe in the culture. Belief is knowing that something is right or true – often through experience. It is an important first step in commitment and engagement. Without belief it is impossible to be motivated. We need to believe in the culture and believe that it can succeed. Fortunately, we can motivate ourselves and others to believe in a number of ways.
Care
In addition to belief we have to care enough to do something about it. Culture demands and always receives an emotional response. This of course can be positive or negative. It requires something more than the external motivation from the Believe step above. It requires internal motivation – the motivation that drives us from within. How many times have people believed something to be true, but still didn’t do what was required? This is often because they didn’t care enough. Without the right emotional commitment our architected culture won’t succeed.
Drive
The right culture, believed and cared about must be driven forward into reality. We must be intentional about culture implementation, it won’t just happen. Diligence is our watch-word. We have to design the right artefacts that will ensure the culture and its behaviours are lived out by everyone. Once designed they have to be implemented diligently, earnestly and with total immersion across the whole organisation and beyond. Even after implementation culture suffers entropy and needs to be constantly driven to remain successful, relevant and sustainable.
A+B+C+D=E
So, to create a successful expression of culture (which is essentially how people behave) we need to architect the culture. We then need to ensure everyone believes and cares. And finally we have to drive the belief and care to express the culture well.
Together, A, B, C and D will deliver a great Expression of culture.
Of course, getting the right culture is another subject and that is why we’re here to help…
