The Essence of Org. Culture
Creating greater performance
Changing culture is still a hot topic.
Many companies want to create a good culture that fits them perfectly, but it is not an easy and tedious journey. Especially large organizations and older companies want to have a corporate culture that fits the current times and attracts good talent, especially in the era of rapid changes in the business environment and employee preferences. However, it is difficult to find a company that has achieved such cultural innovation or change to the end.
In particular, as the topic of culture has been defined as the main task of HR, it is often regarded as a management policy of the CEO, an educational program to strengthen the mindset of employees, or a campaign represented by a slogan, and is often treated as an agenda or event item for HR. As a result, most organizations that need to change their culture see it as a task for HR to complete. No matter how much the C-suite emphasizes the importance of culture, many of these organizations are far from transforming or innovating into a new culture that resonates with all employees.
What is organizational culture?
I've been asked many times what culture is. From new hires to very senior executives... everyone has a different answer, but the one I hear the most is that it's a way of working. That's right. Changing the way we work, the basic assumptions that everyone takes for granted, is about changing the past and legacy of an organization, piece by piece, and changing the vested interests of many leaders and the process by which they acquired them.
Moreover, the way we work is how we perform.
Some companies are talking about culture, revamping meetings and reporting, and measuring the adoption and utilization of digital collaboration tools. That's right. These are all things that are related to how we work, but we don't often talk about what the end point is, because there's a lot of doubt about whether changing the way we meet or report will significantly improve our performance. If you're going to change the way you work, it has to be in the direction of greater performance, otherwise you're not going to convince anyone. So the end goal of changing the culture of an organization must be to create greater results.
Don't be a shy change agent to save face.
You can't be a shy change agent for the sake of being shy. You can't do that with an HR campaign. When I used to focus my energy on culture change efforts, creating a vision, mission, and core values, I was asked by more than a few executives than I can count: “Does the vision, mission, and core values feed you?” It was a sharp, cynical question. The essence doesn't change. Culture changes the entire organization only when people are convinced that it creates greater results and feeds them.
Culture can't be changed by HR alone. It's an all-out war, and it has to be visible.
(In fact, the groups most resistant to change are often the ones with the most vested interests.) Let's start thinking about doing something bigger. Google, Netflix, it's not something to aspire to, and don't forget that wasting time and energy chasing after them is a recipe for failure and cynicism in your organization. Focus! Another thing to focus on is that culture is a way of creating performance.
