The Organic Nature of Company Culture
At its core, company culture represents an organization's collective values, beliefs, and practices. The unwritten social contract informs how team members interact with each other and the broader world. However, the foundational truth about company culture is that it cannot be artificially implanted or indoctrinated. You can't merely declare your company innovative, empathetic, or customer-centric and expect it to be so. Culture is lived, not lectured. It's demonstrated through actions, decisions, and the day-to-day realities of organizational life.
Actions as the Seeds of Culture
The seeds of a genuine company culture are sown in the actions of its leaders and team members. Leadership, in particular, plays a pivotal role in this process. The behaviors, priorities, and decisions of those at the helm set a powerful example, signaling what is truly valued within the organization. When leaders consistently act in ways that embody the company's stated values, they lay the foundation for a culture that resonates with authenticity and integrity.
How did bushido, the code of the samurai, enable the warrior class to rule Japan for seven hundred years and shape modern Japanese culture? What set of cultural virtues empowered them? The samurai called their principles “virtues” rather than “values”; virtues are what you do, while values are merely what you believe. As we’ll see, doing is what matters. (In what follows I will use “virtues” to refer to the ideal, and “values” to refer to what most companies now espouse.) - Ben Horowitz in What You Do Is Who You Are
The Evolutionary Journey
Cultivating a robust company culture is an evolutionary journey, not a sprint to a finish line. It requires patience, commitment, and a willingness to learn and adapt. As the company grows and faces new challenges, its culture will be tested and reshaped. Each hurdle overcome, each success celebrated, and even each failure encountered contributes to the rich tapestry of the organization's culture, embedding lessons and setting precedents for the future.
Cultivating Through Consistency
The development of a strong company culture hinges on consistency. This means aligning policies, practices, and everyday behaviors with the core values and principles the organization espouses. It involves creating an environment where the right actions are encouraged and recognized, from the way feedback is given and received to the manner in which decisions are made and communicated. Consistency in these areas reinforces the cultural norms and expectations, gradually solidifying them into the company's fabric.
Nurturing Through Time
Time is a crucial ingredient in cultivating company culture. It allows for the iterative process of embedding values, learning from experiences, and building a shared history that binds the team together. With time, the culture becomes a living, breathing aspect of the organization, influencing not just how people work but why they work and what they believe they can achieve together.
In conclusion, as we explore company culture, it's important to remember that it's an organic, evolving entity shaped by the collective actions and decisions of everyone within the organization. It's about creating an environment where the stated values are not just words on a wall, but principles that guide daily actions and interactions. Building such a culture takes time, consistency, and a commitment to living out the values that define the organization, creating a space where individuals feel connected, valued, and driven by a shared purpose.