What is a Company Culture?

What is culture? This question puzzles everyone- from founders scaling from 1 to 10 to CEOs of MNCs. Let's try to solve this puzzle- one piece at a time!

What are a company's broad level goals? Solving specific customer problems, being a market leader or invent a product! When each of these goals become specific and is broken down to sub goals and then tasks, how you do your tasks to achieve company's goals is what culture is. This includes

• How you orient people around the goal &
• The cumulative beliefs and values of your people

It is definitely easier said than done. Writing the good old Vision-Mission-Values does not build good culture, nor does throwing money at the problem like freebies in terms of food, gifts or holidays! So what is the secret sauce? Here's what you need to know-

Culture is always top-down        

The beliefs and values are always percolated from top. How kids learn from observing parents and not listening to their instructions, employees too assume ground rules by observing their leaders. If you write something in your vision-mission-values statements and do the opposite, the culture will become that opposite thing. There's no way, but to walk the talk. 

Know whom to ask        

The gulf between what leadership thinks and what actual scenario is, is wider than one would like to believe. You will know the real culture wins and battles by interacting with entry level employees. Employee survey is just the starting point; you need to dig deeper for insights with the help of one-on-one discussions, focus groups and more. Know the level of hierarchy which wields the most influence on employees’ daily experiences- project managers/program managers/branch managers or portfolio managers. Include that level in the culture building exercise.

Culture does not work in a silo        

You cannot compartmentalize culture in HR department anymore. HR is the designer and enabler, but not wholly responsible for it. Building culture is a shared responsibility throughout the organization- involving people from all functions, making them accountable and enabling them lead by example! Culture has become a strategic priority with impact on the bottom line, it is not 'a good to have' thing anymore.

Start, Reset, Restart        

Each organization is different from each other and from its previous version in terms of industry, size, employees, geographies. As an organization evolves, cultures needs to evolve with it. Holding on to a certain type of culture over the long term is impossible and affects the organization growth adversely. Do the following exercise on regular basis:

• Define what's desirable culture for your organization through insights and employee surveys
• Incorporate the desirable attributes wherever you can- hiring, performance reviews, managerial feedbacks, customer & employee surveys, day-to-day life, even creating new roles if needed.
• Most importantly, model the way. Each direct or indirect interaction, make sure the leaders showcase the culture they're trying to build.

Culture is a beautiful piece of organizational alchemy that each leader has to master. It never happens by accident. It takes a whole lot of effort, yet once successfully cultivated, the rewards are boundless in their potential.