Why culture probably isn’t right if it’s soft and fluffy.

I spent many years working in a big corporate amongst the Brains — the scientists and engineers researching breakthrough tech. The kind of people — at least some of them — who find the ceiling really interesting whenever you mention anything touchy-feely like ‘culture’.

Photo by Science in HD on Unsplash

These Brains look like they would probably love culture.

Just before I left (spoiler alert) I was asked to lead a refresh for the strategy — something hard, technical, with lots of numbers. Except we didn’t really need a new strategy — the existing one was just fine. But what the team I led quickly realised was we needed a new culture — one democratising power, encouraging psychological safety, engendering trust and collaboration, cutting out useless bureaucracy.

It didn’t work. For many reasons. Not sure the leadership really bought into it. Maybe we tried to change too much too fast. But I think the main reason it failed was because we didn’t stick to it; we optimistically assumed that once we gave it life, it would fend for itself.

Naïve I know.

The experience scarred me a bit. I felt I let my organisation down because they’d told me they wanted this culture change — and I didn’t see it through for them.

So when, in my next organisation, I was asked to become Head of Culture and build new ways of working, I flatly refused. Not me guv; I’m a marketer.

Fortunately, my boss at the time and now a good friend rejected my refusal and helped me see a different way. Over the next few months, we defined and implemented a new culture that really worked — it drove performance edge, created ownership, built a special team dynamic and generated an almost palpable pride.

So what was different?

In a word, discipline.

Photo by Thao Le Hoang on Unsplash

More people in white clothes that don’t really look like the kind of thing I mean.

Instead of leaving implementation to chance, we did a few things:

1. We made it mandatory for everyone — practised by everyone at all levels.

2. We brought our culture to life in our daily ways of working.

3. We elevated our culture to become something almost sacred — it defined each of us and all of us together.

4. We measured impact in a bi-weekly survey, with results used in retros to intervene where we saw persistently low scores or drops sprint to sprint.

And we felt the impact in our performance, in talent acquisition, in attracting deal flow, in differentiating our brand, versus the rest of the company and externally in our value proposition.

And finally, we felt it in our team — high levels of motivation, fun and a shared commitment to self- and team-improvement. Individuals grew more confident with frequent feedback and recognition. It was truly inspiring.

But it came at a cost. Discipline can be gruelling, it isn’t for everyone. Nor is it something you can dip in and out of. Some extended team members, who only worked part time with us, struggled to connect with us, because we were like an unstoppable machine — and occasionally, I reflect now, a bit exclusive.

After a year, a bunch of new talent came on board and we refreshed our Code and developed something softer, still focused on driving outsize performance, but with more care and attention to the individual. It felt right for a team that was maturing. But it has been harder to implement without the kind of black and white approach we had before.

So here’s three lessons I learnt:

1. Culture is about standing for something, who you are. Like a brand it cannot appeal to everyone; therein lies the route to mediocrity. That does not mean it needs to be exclusive. Nor does it need to be something that can’t be challenged. Indeed an explicit part of our culture was to feel uncomfortable and be direct with one another.

2. Culture is fragile. It needs feeding and nurturing to build strength and confidence. It needs practising every day by everyone — and acknowledging when we fall short. It also needs quick interventions, never left to fester.

3. Culture is measurable, most easily with a survey. Data brings objectivity and helps engage those who find culture awkward hook into something a bit more tangible.

And the results can be fast. First, in how your people feel, and soon after with an uptick in performance.

Never dismiss culture as the soft, fluffy stuff delegated to HR; it should be treated like any asset that delivers your company’s competitive advantage.

Or its undoing.

If you’re interested in how to build a high performing culture that’s in sync with your brand and purpose, drop me a line at adam@lexicona.co.uk.