Live the Culture You Want to See
July 2024
By Alastair Colin-Jones,
Senior Director, Business Transformation & Learning,
Mutual Value Labs
“Culture eats strategy for breakfast.”
This well-worn phrase conjures a slightly odd image, but makes (or at least attempts to make) a clear point – organisational culture is really important. Get the culture right, and the rest will follow.
When leaders try to foster a positive culture in their organization, it typically veers towards one of two extremes. There’s the ambitious, high performing, hard-working, high standards, regular feedback, constantly pushing kind of culture – which can deliver great results (especially in the short run) but can leave people feeling pretty exhausted.
Then, there’s the thoughtful, kind, high on wellbeing, high on fun, big on celebration, big on ‘investing in our people’, emotionally intelligent kind of culture. I’ve worked in both (and sometimes lurched from one to the other in the same organisation).
Advocates of either type will make their case about the merits of their preferred style (and the deficiencies of the other kind), but the reality is that we aren’t stuck in an either-or paradigm. We can have a both-and.
We should be investing in building purpose-driven cultures that are high challenge and high support, hard-working and strong on wellbeing, giving regular feedback, space for reflection, while also being fun – delivering results, and retaining happy people.
So, the million-dollar question… How do we cultivate this ‘third way’ culture? There’s a whole load of ingredients that you’re probably familiar with, but some in particular merit a mention.
You can start with trust (knowing that people aren’t holding back, and are being open), add some encouragement (telling people specific things you’ve noticed that are really great about them) and vision (painting a picture of a future that people can’t help but want to be a part of). These three things will create incredible energy in a group of people.
If you add creativity (space and support for people to generate really imaginative ideas and grow) and belonging (psychological safety where those ideas can be challenged and tested with togetherness) you channel that energy into a strategic, vision-aligned direction.
You then need accountability (ensuring people do what they say they’ll do and behave how they aspire to behave) and learning (where people have the input, feedback and real, challenging opportunities to improve). These are some of the key ingredients you will need to create a sense of momentum – and get results and retention.
The thing is, it’s impossible to just turn on a culture like that. If you put a group of people together, they won’t naturally behave that way. We all hope that if we can just be in a culture that does all of this perfectly, we’ll become the sort of person who perpetuates it. But this is the wrong way round. Culture doesn’t just happen. If we wait to become a purpose-driven leader, if we wait to become someone who sets a good culture, we’ll be waiting a long time. We need to have the courage and conviction to behave like the person we want to become, but do so, now.
Several years ago, when I lived in Oxford, I so wanted to be the sort of person who would jump at the chance to serve those in need. Then the opportunity came; we were asked to host a refugee in our home for an indefinite period – then I realised I wasn’t ready to do it, I wasn't that kind of person. Miles off.
Fortunately, my wife is exactly that kind of person, with spades of it to go round. She pushed me to take the step. Kindly reminding me that I would never actually 'feel' ready. By taking action, in faith, I eventually did become the sort of person I wanted to be. But I know that if I’d have waited to be ready, I’d have waited a long, long, time.
Intentionally building a culture is about taking risks and stepping into the person we want to become. Culture is basically birthed out of all the behaviours that we collectively embody, allow and perpetuate.
That’s why, if we do business differently, we won’t just recruit people who ‘fit’ with our culture as it is. We’ll recruit people who can contribute to our culture as it should and could be. People who are prepared to bring the behaviours of the culture we want to become. This will help us to keep building a culture of high support and high challenge – that subsequently delivers performance.
