Culture’s more than a catchphrase

‘We have a great culture.’ We have all heard that. We have all said it. But what does it mean?

“We have a great culture.” We have all heard that. We have all said it. But what does it mean?

Ping-pong tables, free meals and beer on tap? No. Yoga, CrossFit classes and massage chairs? I so need that, but no.

The promise of being part of a hip, equity-incentivised, fast-growing team? Closer, but still no.

Culture is often referred to as “the way things are done around here”. But, for the description to be useful, we need to be specific. I’ve been working in human resources for over 20 years, and the best companies I’ve worked with have recognised that culture includes three crucial elements: behaviours, systems and practices, all of which are guided by an overarching set of values. A great culture is what you get when all three of these are aligned, and when they line up with the organisation’s espoused values, as well. When gaps appear between these elements, you start to see problems — and great employees leave.

These gaps can take many forms. A company might espouse “work-life balance” but not offer paid parental leave, or expect people to stay late every night (a behaviours-systems gap). Or it might tell people to be consensus-builders, but then promote employees who are solely authoritarian decision-makers (a behaviours-practices gap).

Gaps like these are never solved by turning culture over to a chief culture officer or pulling together culture committees. Likewise, inspirational leadership, the repetition of value statements and letting people be themselves are important, but they are by-products of a healthy culture, not the drivers of one. How, then, do you repair a flagging culture? You can start by reviewing the behaviours, systems and practices already in place in your company.

Behaviours

A common culture-building practice is the creation of value statements. But the real test is how leaders behave: how they enact these values, or don’t. People watch everything leaders do. If leaders aren’t exhibiting the behaviours that reflect their company’s values, then those values are meaningless.

Employees also need clarity. Every employee I have managed would give up their so-called perks for one thing: clear expectations. Given your organisational values, which behaviours consistently get rewarded? Which behaviours lead to promotion?

Spend the time identifying the behaviours and skills that express each of your organisational values. For example, if I were to see someone exemplifying the value of “teamwork”, what would she be doing? What would she not be doing? One organisation might describe teamwork behaviour as “collaborates effectively through helping others”. Another might interpret teamwork behaviour as “collaborates effectively through encouraging productive disagreements”.

Clarifying expectations for employees holds leaders accountable as well. Does a manager value face time more than outcomes? Is a leader always 10 minutes late to meetings? How often does starting a meeting five minutes late lead to people showing up unprepared? Before we realise it, our organisation becomes known for late meetings and apathetic leadership. Employees become reactive as a result. And then we wonder why we have an attrition problem.

When expected behaviours are clear, we can focus on practising those behaviours rather than trying to identify them. Accountability becomes easier to measure and success easier to attain.

Systems

Every process that is created, every system installed, every technology used, every structure designed and every job title that is given will either reinforce or dilute a company’s culture. There are five key systems that are important to an organisation’s overall culture:

● Hiring. Instead of defaulting to hiring for “cultural fit” — usually an excuse for hiring people we find likeable or similar to us — we can look for behaviours that are cultural complements. This moves us away from the tendency to hire people who think the same and towards a company built on a diversity of backgrounds and ideas.

● Strategy and goal-setting. These activities do two things culture-wise: they rally people around goals while providing guidance on which outcomes employees are expected to produce.

● Assessing. How are behaviours assessed? How often are they reviewed? Is feedback shared consistently, and is it weighted differently based on who provides it? Environments based on office politics or fear are often created when there is a lack of trust or when there are questions about what behavioural standards are used.

● Developing. When employees feel that professional development, feedback assessments or engagement surveys are irrelevant, it’s usually because the questions don’t tie back to what the organisation reinforces and rewards. Culture problems can also arise when a “safe learning environment” turns into a way to punish employees for low scores rather than help them grow.

● Rewarding. What are the criteria for becoming a manager, director or vice-president? What behaviours are expected of people who seek such titles? What technical and leadership skills are needed? Employees do not have to be concerned about being friends with the CEO, competing with each other or other political challenges when these questions have clear answers.

A good culture sets these five systems up so that they feed into and off each other.

Practices

Practices include everything from company events and running meetings to feedback processes and how decisions are made.

Do you have repeatable decision-making processes in place? Are meeting participants expected to be collaborative and consensus-driven, or is some conflict OK? What should managers talk about in performance reviews?

Practices need to change as the company changes. Once useful practices can quickly become counter-productive. If the original intent of an off-site retreat was to help teams bond, what needs to shift now that the company has tripled in size?

Great organisations and leaders know that the culture stuff is the hard stuff. However, you can close your culture gaps if you spend enough time understanding the behaviours expected throughout the organisation, identifying the systems and processes that will continue to help those behaviours be expressed and sustained, and shaping practices that help employees and the organisation become better.

Copyright 2018 Harvard Business School Publishing Corp. Distributed by the New York Times Syndicate.