Culture: Driver of Success or Failure

“Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” — Peter Drucker, father of management

Developing a positive culture for an organization (team) is critical for our success. What is culture? Culture is defined as the set of values, norms, guiding beliefs, and understandings that is shared by members of an organization and taught to new members. A number of studies have shown a positive relationship between culture and performance. Adam Grant, a prominent organizational psychologist, says, “The culture of a workplace — an organization’s values, norms, and practices — has a huge impact on our happiness and success.”

So, how do we intentionally build a culture that will create greater happiness for our employees and greater success for our teams? Let's explore important tips to help build the great culture that drives the success we desire.

1. Be Intentional

Great cultures that generate high performance do not develop by accident. Great cultures are created as a result of intentional efforts, including planned changes and consistent follow-through.

2. Clarify What’s Important to Organizational (Team) Success

Clarifying the mission (i.e., why the team exists, its purpose), vision (i.e., the future desired state), and values (i.e., our core values that we aspire to) is a good starting place for developing your desired culture. Specifying specific goals and the strategies to help achieve the goals is also important.

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Included in clarifying what’s important should be our desire to add value to our key stakeholders, which are the investors (i.e., stockholders), customers, and employees.

3. Define and Explain the Key Values

The importance of values has already been mentioned, but what are some of the most important values we want to emphasize? There is no magic list of desirable values that all teams should aspire to live, but here are a few values that various researchers and experts say contribute to a great culture and team success.

Integrity. Virtually all people value integrity, and multiple surveys support this priority. Integrity (always doing the right thing even if it costs us) is a value that should be expressed, but is best taught through the consistent actions of leaders and other influencers.

Adaptability and flexibility. We live in a changing world, and to be successful, we need to be adaptable. We have seen the sad fate of organizations that are not adaptable to external changes such as customer preferences and technology (e.g., Toys “R” Us and Sears). Another important value is flexibility. Employees (and customers) appreciate your flexibility in meeting their needs. Seventy percent of companies that have moved to flexible working practices saw an increase in productivity. Yes, we need to have policies and procedures in place to avoid chaos and promote efficiency, consistency, and provide compliance, but there are times when we can and should be flexible when it benefits a customer or employee and does no harm to our organization. I agree with former President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s statement that “Rules are not necessarily sacred; principles are.”

Collaboration. No individual by herself can be a lasting success. It takes a team effort to accomplish anything worthwhile. Valuing and practicing collaboration within and across teams will help lead to the success we desire.

Customer orientation. No organization or team can exist without customers (whether internal and/or external). Focusing on serving customers well is crucial to making sure our teams not only survive but thrive.

Results orientation. At the end of the day, organizations and teams exist to get results for key stakeholders. Emphasizing the bottom line results we seek is important. Equally or even more important is to also emphasize how we pursue the results we seek.

People (employees) first. Almost every leader would agree with the statement that employees are the most valuable resource of the organization. I love this sentiment expressed by businessman Andrew Carnegie (who owned the modern equivalent of several billion dollars of factories and equipment): “Take away my people but leave my factories, and soon grass will grow on the factory floor. Take away my factories but leave my people, and soon we will have a new and better factory.” But when it comes to putting people first, talk is cheap; we need action. There are a wide range of practical ways to show employees we value them, including respecting work-life balance, compensating them fairly, and providing growth and development opportunities. A recent Career Builder survey found the top two motivators employees valued were flexible schedules and recognition. Anne Mulcahy, former CEO of Xerox, emphasized, “Employees who believe that management is concerned about them as a whole person — not just an employee — are more productive, more satisfied, more fulfilled. Satisfied employees mean satisfied customers, which leads to profitability.”

4. Provide Links to Employees on How They Contribute to Team Success

Businesswoman and leadership expert Frances Hesselbein wisely observed, “People want to feel what they do makes a difference.” From my experience — and based on recent research — her statement rings true. I also agree with businessman Ken Blanchard's advice: “Connect the dots between individual roles and the goals of the organization. When people see that connection, they get a lot of energy out of work. They feel the importance, dignity, and meaning in their job.”

5. Implement Performance Culture Tools

Here are some tools we can use to help develop the desired culture.

Symbolic reminders. These are visible artifacts that reinforce desired behaviors and values. Examples are posters, pictures, and other wall hangings promoting key values, behaviors, and objectives; thank-you notes from customers; rewards like trophies and plaques; and anything else that provides a visual reminder of what is important and/or past successes.

Keystone behaviors. These are desired behaviors that we want to encourage and reinforce. Examples include empowering employees by reducing the number of approvals needed for decisions, promoting collaboration by making it easier to work across teams, and building personal relationships by following the advice of Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Group: “There is no magic formula for great company culture. The key is just to treat your staff how you would like to be treated.”

6. Recognize and Reward Good Behavior and Performance

Research shows actions and behaviors that are reinforced (i.e., recognized and rewarded) get repeated; actions ignored for extended periods tend to cease. Writer Dale Carnegie wisely said, “People work for money but go the extra mile for praise, recognition, and rewards.”

Research over the years has led to the development of what some have called the “greatest management principle in the world”: you get what you reward. Sincere, regular, and positive recognition and rewarding of desired behaviors is common sense — but not common practice. A Gallup poll of thousands of employees found that 65% claimed to have received no praise or recognition in the past year.

7. Celebrate Successes and Have Fun on the Journey

A cardinal principle I constantly emphasize is “success breeds success.” The most extensive research project I have ever found on high-performing teams (involving 237 organizations and 2.5 million employees) found three key ingredients that high-performing teams shared. One of those crucial ingredients was a strong sense of achievement. Celebrating team accomplishments on an ongoing basis develops a strong sense of achievement. We need to value and make room to have some fun.

Another crucial ingredient from that same research was that high-performing teams have a strong sense of camaraderie, and having fun together is a great way to build it.

Here is a closing inspiring quote that speaks to the importance of our culture. Louis Gerstner Jr., former CEO of IBM said, “I came to see, in my time at IBM, that culture isn’t just one aspect of the game — it is the game. In the end, an organization is nothing more than the collective capacity of its people to create value.”

My best to you as you pursue a culture that will drive your teams to an even higher level of success.