06 Dec You can’t treat culture as a project
So many of my conversations right now circle around, or go back to, issues of the organisation’s culture.
People struggle with it because you can’t treat culture as a project. It’s never a settled state, you’re always working on it. Part of the unheroic work I talk about. Every action and decision either feeds the culture you want or turn it into something else. Get enough of the ‘wrong’ food and soon enough you’ve got a very different looking petri dish!
So to help you navigate your culture experiment, here’s a few of articles I’ve written over the years about the ins and outs of culture.
Culture grows the way you feed it
“Culture grows the way you feed it. If the way things are done, if what people value and how that makes them feel is constantly reinforced and rewarded (fed), then the culture will continue to grow that way.” Keep reading…
To change the culture you’ve got to change the people
“Accomplishing the feat requires changing how those people think and act. And you can’t wave a change program wand and hey presto six months later have a whole different culture emerge like a proverbial butterfly from a cocoon. It’s a long-term incremental process of adjust, shift and repeat.” Keep reading …
Culture fits or mis-fits is the wrong distinction:
“Your values are the foundation of your culture, and they play a ready hand in shaping how the organisation will be together. What do you value as a group? The ‘how we do things around here’ stuff you share is the short-list; keeping your values to a short-list is one way to avoid groupthink.” Keep reading…
Culture, clarity and brand:
“Every organisation has a culture (whether you know what it is or not). Whether it is a deliberate choice or what you got when you weren’t paying attention is up to you. … But one thing is for sure. A cult-like culture is not the sole province of those foosball-playing tech start-ups and creative agencies.” Keep reading…
If you want a particular culture then pay careful attention to what and how you are feeding it.
Thanks for reading