Company Culture is not Magic

Been doing some light reading lately.  Nothing too heady but valuable non-the-less.  Picked up a copy of Jim Champy’s new book – Outsmart – How to do What Your Competition Can’t.  You may remember him from his books Re-Engineering the Corporation and X-Engineering the Corporation.  Two books that got a lot of people talking when they were published.

Outsmart – while not nearly as deep as his other efforts (he does say it is one of a series so when the entire group of books is out it’ll probably be very comprehensive) it is full of good advice.  It is organized around 8 "rules/guidelines" for competition.  They are:

Compete  by…

• Seeing What Others Don’t
• Thinking Outside the Bubble
• Using All You Know
• Changing Your Frame of Reference
• Doing Everything Yourself
• Tapping the Success of Others
• Creating Order Out of Chaos
• Simplifying Complexity

Nothing radically new in the list but it is written in a highly digestible format.

The key point I wanted to make in this post is that near the end he touches on some important ideas.

To quote from the book…

"Companies that outsmart their competitors depend on culture to manage behavior.  Incumbents use rules and controls.

In conversations with people at companies featured in the book, I noticed that everyone seems to know just what to do at key moments – a customer emergency, a transgression by an employee, or some other breakdown.  Shared values and beliefs drive and control behavior.  Sometimes these bedrock values are made explicit; sometimes they are undeclared and simply appear in time of need.  In either case, they lead people to the right solution.

In incumbent businesses, especially big ones, rules and controls often dominate, and they sometimes seem to insult the intelligence and integrity of the organization’s employees.  The prevailing assumption is that, when given the chance, people will do the wrong thing – exactly the opposite view of companies in this book."

If you’re a dedicated reader you know how I feel about culture and how recognition and rewards fit into developing and maintaining culture in an organization.  As you know, what gets rewarded and recognized get’s done.

Nothing "Appears"

Champy says that these "bedrock  values…simply appear in time of need."  I doubt very much that Criss Angel is waving his hand above these organizations and making culture appear.  A company’s culture is driven by it’s behaviors and the way it publicizes and promotes those behaviors.

I would suggest if he had asked he’d find that the companies he is highlighting in his book work very hard to ensure that the appropriate behaviors are spotlighted.  Nothing is "undeclared" and "appears" within a company.  If a company has a value or shared belief there is someone or something reinforcing it.  Whether it’s the comments in the hallway, at meetings or to the press.  Somehow the culture is being reinforced.

What ever you want your culture to be at your company – don’t wait for it to appear.  Make the effort and reward and recognize the behaviors that represent those values/beliefs.

Part of the allure to magic is wondering how the trick is done.  Sometimes I think we like to think that companies we read about have some magic formula and that heightens their allure as well. 

Luckily for you – the secret to the trick is simple… reinforce and recognize.