Many people have spent quite a bit of time thinking about, talking about, reading about, and worrying about culture. I am one of them.
Thinking about culture led me to look up the meaning of the word in the Merriam-Webster dictionary. I was amused to find the first definition is about farming: cultivation, tillage. The next few definitions are about developing excellence of taste and so forth. Finally they get to the meaning we generally think of in the business world:
5.a : the integrated pattern of human knowledge, belief, and behavior that depends upon the capacity for learning and transmitting knowledge to succeeding generations
5.b : the customary beliefs, social forms, and material traits of a racial, religious, or social group; also : the characteristic features of everyday existence shared by people in a place or time
5.c : the set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices that characterizes an institution or organization
5.d : the set of values, conventions, or social practices associated with a particular field, activity, or societal characteristic
As I read through this I was struck by how what culture…including business culture…really is has nothing to do with extensive thinking, reading, talking, and worrying because it is deeper than any of those. Culture is how you behave when no one is watching.
People spend untold hours trying to figure out how to create the best culture for success and even more hours trying to figure out how to build an organization that embodies this culture. It turns out the answer is quite simple: Exemplify the culture you want always…especially when no one is watching.
We all know that everyone copies what you do rather than following what you say you do. Hopefully these two are the same but all too often the divergence is extreme, and everyone knows it. For unknown reasons many executives seem to be unaware of this simple fact. They also seem to be unaware of the fact that nothing is really unwatched these days.
In spite of this, culture really is how you behave when no one is watching. It is the manifestation of the deepest beliefs you have. It comes from your underlying morals, ethics, ideals, and vision. If the foundation you build on is flawed, the building is shaky. And everyone sees the wobbles. No amount of flowery description of the building will change the fact that it’s unstable.
And so it is with culture. Your foundation leads you to the building you wind up with. That foundation, seemingly deep underground and unseen, is somehow known by all. And what they know guides their behavior more powerfully than the fancy paint on the upper stories.
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