Fostering the Right Organizational Culture.

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"whatever success we have had in maintaining our culture has been instrumental in Intel's success in surviving strategic inflection points."

— Andrew Grove

In an earlier blog article, we could not focus enough on the importance of culture and its impact on business. As stated earlier about the reinforcing loop, implementing employee listening strategy, and developing appropriate culture. If we have a suitable culture, it will facilitate the effective implementation of our employee listening strategy. Here we will focus on effectively defining and then creating the right culture. The right culture is an indispensable prerequisite for successfully implementing our organizational strategy. Hence it is essential to change our hidebound culture consonant with the developments in the external environment. It is not immutable, albeit we can create bespoke culture according to our strategic requirements. First, let us look at how Gartner defines organizational culture.

"Organizational culture stems directly from the values shared by the organization. It is the unwritten code of conduct made up of core values, cherished beliefs, and priorities. Organizational culture comprises:

Methods of decision making

Operating styles

Organizational philosophy

Organizational structure

Employee motivation and loyalty

Internal communication patterns"

 

We must create a salubrious environment for effectively implementing our employee listening strategy. Wherein employees can feel galvanized and freely express and receive open and upright feedback. We need open, employee-centric, egalitarian, and inclusive culture. Wherein encouraged employees will feel valued and wittingly express their opinions and ideas. Specifically to welcome open communication and embolden unequivocal and straightforward feedback. Limpid communication is a prerequisite for bringing about a secure and welcoming atmosphere. While enhancing empathy for employees, we also need accountability to hold the teams and individuals accountable for their actions. 

We will mainly refer to 'Reinventing the Organization' - a meaty and improving book by Dave Ulrich. One of his magnum opus, in which he expounds that every organization has a unique culture. He states that it is not easy to define the right culture. He delineates three steps for successfully using culture as a governance tool. The first step involves describing the right culture. The second step is learning to think about culture as a governance tool and use it. And the third step is to apply specific tools for creating the right culture.

Define the right culture.

Ulrich states that the crucial part is defining the right culture. The right culture reflects in the processes within organizations and commands employee actions. He exemplifies that many portray culture as the roots of trees. However, he expresses his disapprobation and suggests that the 'roots' strengthen the past and offer a fixed view of culture. He opines that culture should be construed as the leaves of the tree, taking energy from the sun and flourishing into the future. It is essential to note the accentuation and focus on the future mainly to succeed in the marketplace. He clarifies the four concepts to define the right culture: Purpose, Values, Brand, and Culture. 

These four concepts establish the process. We can describe the right culture predicating on these four concepts. Delineating the right culture establishes expectations leading to instituting processes and actions that impact organizational performance and employee wellbeing. The process goes beyond the general set of values and tailored customer promises. Although Ulrich postulates it for a 'market-oriented ecosystem' we will try to harness it to create an enabling culture for implementing an effective employee listening strategy.

Purpose: 

It represents an aim for various possibilities from the cultural context. Invariably expressed in a tagline, it includes an expected vision of what we want to achieve. Ideally, it accompanies the mission statement. It delineates our focus, goals, and objectives with approximate timelines for achieving them. It creates an impressive & futuristic image that inspires people and shows the path. He illustrates that with Google's mission to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful.

There cannot be a better example than Johnson & Johnson's credo for elucidation of 'purpose.' We can regard it as the ideal or exemplary embodiment of the right culture. It champions an inclusive work atmosphere where everyone is considered a distinct individual. It also emphasizes that employees must have a sense of purpose in their jobs. Other than the employee's health and wellbeing, it highlights that they 'must feel free to make suggestions and complaints.' Further, it underscores that employee 'actions must be just and ethical.'

Values: 

He states that values represent core beliefs. It amounts to what the organization stands for. And how employees go about doing their work. From the analogy of a tree, values are the roots. As stated in the value statement, they are creations of the founder. Essentially values survive and stand the test of time. They govern acceptable employee behaviors and are usually consistent and generic across the organization. The examples include probity, integrity, excellence, accountability, service, and passion. At Tencent, the core values are integrity, proactive, collaboration, and innovation.

To accentuate the 'values' part of our values statement, we must include suitable values such as transparency, openness, empathy, accountability, and inclusivity.

Brand: 

"What's the best way to build a brand for the long term? In a word: culture," says Tony Hsieh, Zappos. The above quote highlights the importance of culture for developing an effective brand. Hsieh further says that culture and a company brand are actually just two sides of the same coin. Invariably a brand represents what the organization is known for in the marketplace. Including customer promises about specific products. It also impacts how organizations handle customer interactions. 

According to E. Lawler, every organization develops its brand. There is no formula to indicate the right way. Our 'brand' should be known in the marketplace for open communication. As they say, better employee experience leads to exceptional customer experience. Our brand must reinforce our employee and customer interactions.

Culture: 

Ulrich suggests, "This idea refers to the image of the firm in the mind of our key customers made real to employees." Such delineation is essential for connecting the culture to the marketplace. It also moves the focus from internal value to external customer-value. Considering it from this perspective ensures the organization's brand and customer promises drive internal actions. This outside-in view of culture refers to employees gathering the key customers' perceptions of the organization's image. 

Essentially we need an open (concurrently) employee-centric, egalitarian, and inclusive culture while taking the outside-in approach to the culture. The culture emphasizing empathy, transparency, open communication, and accountability. 

Comparison:

In comparison, Schein defines organizational culture in three levels: artifacts, espoused values, and underlying assumptions. The artifacts are visible. They are easily observable, e.g., dress codes, office layouts, furniture, etc. The espoused values determine the rules of behaviours. Essentially how employees represent the organization to themselves and others and the reasons for employee behaviors. The underlying assumptions are usually entrenched deeply and comprise unconscious behaviours. It determines how employees perceive, thinks, & feel and epitomize the essence of culture. They are also the fountainhead of values and actions within an organization. Given the recency, the Ulrich approach seems sound. It also appears to be driven by the marketplace due to its outside-in perspective. And it considers purpose and brand as the sine qua non of defining the right culture. 

Ulrich avers that the right culture becomes the governance mechanism for shaping people's thinking and behaviors. Culture has many facets due to the labyrinthine human thought and behaviour. He suggests grouping them into three broad categories of culture. The culture takes place on these three levels. 

• First, stories and other organizational customs: include symbols, rituals, stories, and other events. We behold these cultural artifacts because they are most visible. We must create and disseminate stories and ingrain germane rituals to reinforce our culture. 

• Second, internally defined criteria: is a subtle and pivotal part of our culture. It determines how people think, behave, feel, and act. It reflects values, norms, and unwritten rules. Essentially 'how we do things in our company.' We must explicitly define the material considerations of our culture. Also, help people to learn them by creating appropriate feedback channels. 

• And the third, external reputation: refers to our external image as perceived by our customers. Everyone must think, act, and feel congruous to the expected culture for its ostensible manifestation. Our culture comes about in every customer interaction and is our ginormous brand carrier. 

In line with our external image and promises, we must balance our internal values and behaviors to develop the right culture. Our external customers and internal employees should share a similar mindset about what we want to be known for. When external expectations entrench employee behaviors and organizational actions, it will pave the way for the right culture to have the expected business impact. With the right culture, we can shape employee preferences and behaviors in our organization. We can traverse internal values and our external brand. And turn the purpose, mission, vision, or strategy into concrete actions.

Create the right culture. 

Robust tools and effective rituals are the prerequisites for creating the right culture. Ulrich suggests following 'process tools' and 'rituals.'

Process tools.

If we have the right culture, our employees will feel, think, and act in line with the promises made to external stakeholders. The process tools help us to create the right culture with an outside-in perspective. 

First, we must define and propagate our principles to translate culture into employee behaviors. (Check out the following image) These principles will lead to employee thinking, decisions, and behaviors. To establish our culture, we must meticulously articulate ways to bolster these employee behaviors. 

It is incumbent upon our leaders to exemplify the requisite behaviours and lead by example. The most conspicuous elements include their business decisions, time allocation, and people decisions. Leaders contribute significantly to culture development through numerous communication forms and business & people decisions. We can foster the right culture by devising appropriate processes, e.g., staffing, training, performance management, rewards and recognition, organization structure, work design, proxemics, and leadership development. Through these processes, leaders can stimulate employee actions.

Throughout the organization, we should select, develop and consider the preferment of the leaders who effectively demonstrate the right culture. Leaders are culture carriers who exemplify and reinforce it within and outside the organization. Like peerless raconteurs, they tell the stories and enshrine the rituals that epitomize the right culture. They also stimulate behaviors that demonstrate the culture in pragmatic ways. Especially the way everyone treats each other within and outside the company. 

Practices or Rituals.

According to Ulrich, we should select and implement the effectual rituals depending on our leadership capabilities. Preferably we expect every leader to be an eloquent orator. They can choose a suitable channel according to their preference. For example, some prefer interactive webinars, podcasts, or town halls. Others may consider letters or emails to highlight the pros and cons of behaviors we expect from employees. Developing the right culture requires a solicitous approach in deliberately using rituals suitable to leaders and the organization. They can organize what they can do hourly, daily, weekly, or long-term to reinforce the right culture. We are considering following remarkable rituals as suggested by Ulrich. However, there could be numerous other approaches depending on our requirements.

Storytelling: 

Our leaders can use missives, emails, or share images redolent of expected behaviours and actions. From the cultural context, the language and words (including demotic expressions) may have specific meanings unique to every organization. We may highlight the importance of open and honest feedback for creating a suitable environment. As stated by Thomas Peters, in comparison with data, stories largely influence us. He further avers that successful companies are replete with numerous rich networks of legends and parables. Stories can help us to convey sacrosanct values, create a shared mindset, and actuate and inspire employees. Epitomizing our vision, purpose, brand, and values storytelling can effectively facilitate the development of the right culture. 

Use of time: 

Leaders' time allocation signifies their prime concerns. Leaders at every level across the organization should schedule their time to create an open and inclusive culture. It conveys what matters the most and how we do things in our organization. 

Naming of facilities: 

Our naming of a section, room, or other structure essentially highlights who and what gets acclaim within our company. Companies often name their boardrooms after scientists, historical leaders, or figures with spiritual significance. The following examples may suit our context: Transparency Terrace, Insight Exchange, Collaborative Commons, Feedback Retreat, Engage Enclave, Ideas Junction, and Authentic Arena. 

Physical setting of offices: 

How we arrange our office layouts speaks volumes about our values, transparency, equality, and collaboration. To develop the right culture, we should create an environment where senior leaders share office space with employees in an open space. Mavens advise being cautious and steering clear of private offices or corner offices. We should demonstrate an open-door policy and ensure inclusive accessibility. Numerous organizations also arrange furniture and colour schemes in line with their brand. 

Frugality: 

As they say, money saved is money earned. This ritual is the provenance of innovation and creativity in many companies. Where resourceful and thrifty employees are encouraged to invent alternative approaches for effectively managing within allocated resources. 

Setting high standards: 

When it comes to quality, certain companies incontrovertibly express their approbation for high standards. It would apply to products and services. However, we can interpret it as adhering to the highest ethical standards for managing our employees. 

Taking the long view: 

Seemingly considering a longer-period perspective would facilitate wiser decision-making instead of focusing on quarterly results. It would help us to create a culture of ownership. Wherein people act for the longer-period health of the company. At Google, such an approach helps to get rid of bad ideas. 

Daily meetings: 

To effectively manage their day-to-day activities, this ritual may work well for teams. Every team may consider holding daily team meetings in the morning. They can discuss daily decisions during the day and earlier decisions and their results. Team members can learn together while creating a culture of transparency and accountability. It would also encourage meaningful feedback in the process of collective decision-making.  

Conclusion:

An article may be insufficient to cover such a stupendous topic in depth. Be that as it may, we can foster the right culture for effectively implementing our employee listening strategy. The crucial part of the process is to adumbrate the right culture. The four concepts expatiated by Ulrich, e.g., purpose, values, brand, and culture, can facilitate the process of defining the culture. The right culture can give purpose and meaning to our employees and govern & shape the way they think, feel, behave, and act. Providentially the process tools can help us to create the sublime culture. Leading by example, our leaders should exemplify the requisite behaviours through business decisions, use of time, and people decisions. We have to devise appropriate processes to corroborate the right culture. Subsequently, we need to select, develop and consider the advancement of the employees propagating our culture. 

Congruous to our leadership capabilities, we must select and implement effective rituals to develop the right culture. With certitude we can state that having the right culture in place will incontrovertibly facilitate the creation of a salutary environment, enabling uninhibited employee communications. Culminating in facilitating effective implementation of our employee listening strategy. We can sum up with the following quote:

"Without exception, the dominance and coherence of culture proved to be an essential quality of the excellent companies. Moreover, the stronger the culture and the more it was directed towards the marketplace, the less need was there for policy manuals, organization charts, or detailed procedures and rules."

— Thomas Peters