Top 10 (scratch that) top 2 tips for a better company culture
Friday, June 26, 2009 at 6:19PM | Charles Seybold 
Last night I went to a “symposium on culture” (the business kind) organized by my friends at Atlas Accelerator.
It was a “good room”; two dozen CEOs of Seattle startups - lots of talent, lots of experience, and lots of good wine. The stage was set for wisdom to flow.
We enjoyed a handful of very good presentations and war stories about company culture. That said, what really struck me was that almost all the comments where about the tactics of culture not the core source of it. Tactics are interesting, but very quickly tend to start sounding like “bread, circuses, and group hugs”.
Trouble is, I just don’t think culture can be reduced to a cafeteria plan of “things management can do”. Don’t get me wrong, some great tactics were shared like free lift tickets, free meat, rights of initiation, rights of intensification, etc.
I just don’t think that stuff matters if you don’t have trust. If people don’t trust each other you’re just bribing them to keep coming back to work. Culture is like mood; it’s temporary and changes easily and it’s just a reflection of the underlying relationships.
It’s easy to see that morale events and company rituals have a pretty clear line of reasoning back to trust building. But that’s really small change compared to the opportunities with daily work. Every project (the stuff that actually pays the bills) has strings of trust connecting all the moving parts; it’s the projects where the real culture building takes place.
By the time my wine class was empty, I decided that CEOs only need to commit themselves to two simple ideas if they want to have a great culture and everything else will become a detail the team will handle:
- Fully commit yourself to building a trust-based organization – set a high standard for the level of trust that your team has with you, each other, and maybe (call me crazy) with your customers. Extend trust until it hurts.
- Trust starts at the top (a.k.a. It’s about you stupid) - The CEO sets the standards through routine actions. You want a culture of accountability? Then the CEO should be transparent about his/her work, responsibilities, and personal performance. You want your team to care about the business more? Then the business better care about them more. You want your customers to trust you, then you better never do wrong by them.
Maybe it’s just that simple.
Original post from LiquidPlanner Online Project Management Software
Reader Comments (5)
Great post Charles! I couldn't agree with you more! Perfect!
while I don't disagree, trust to me is the foundation or glue that binds the culture. Culture is not benefits or activities but well understood, shared values. By that I mean everyone on the team can describe what they are using basically the same laguage and everyone on the team shares the values, really believes they are what guides the team and makes them unique and a team. At least that's what makes a powerful cultures that last and have an effect of a real multiplier for the org. And as the org grows, the values have to be managed to or they will dilute over time.
Fraternities get this, the Marines get it too. From what I've seen T-Mobile USA gets it too.
Charles,
Great thoughts on company culture. You are so right, if companies just focus on morale building events and trinkets to be given out, etc. with no underlying foundation of how people interact with each other on a daily basis consistent with a core set of values, it works counter to intent. It builds cynicism,more lack of trust and lowers morale. To build a solid company culture it's the little things that count, how people interact with each other on a daily basis, how people are held accountable to fulfilling their roles, etc. Its common in talking about "teamwork" in regards to culture and that everyone has to "work" together for the good of the whole group, and although that is true, the concept of there is no "I" in team is a myth. I've seen more cultures break down and more low morale, negative attitudes build because of individual team members a) not fulfilling their role on the team, causing others to have to wait to move projects along, and b) no one addressing the issue directly with the individual perpetrators and instead having group sessions to provide global admonishings about the importance of teamwork without specifically addressing the actual, direct cause. That's where the trust breaks down and its tough to build it back up from there but it can be done. I'm in the middle of one such project now and we're making good progress after just 90-days.
Nice post and so simple!
Two thumbs up! I want to give execs a t-shirt that says "It's about the people, stupid."