If I’ve learned anything in my 16+ years of running Barrel, it’s that there’s no magic bullet when it comes to creating and sustaining a strong company culture. Culture–and in the context of this post, I’m talking about company/organizational culture–is a slippery concept that can mean different things to different people. In some definitions, it encapsulates the behaviors, values, and attitudes of the people that belong to the company. In others, it includes the way the company treats its customers, employees, and partners. In yet another interpretation, culture more specifically refers to the processes and systems that are in place inside the organization and the results they produce. Personally, I like to think of culture as a measure of the business’s overall health. A strong culture means the business is enjoying robust health. A weak culture means the business is in trouble or on shaky footing. There is usually a correlation between strength of culture and financial performance, but this is sometimes not apparent on a short-term timeframe. Long-term, a weak culture inevitably trends towards a decline and has difficulty sustaining performance. Signs of a Strong vs. Weak CultureSince culture is difficult to clearly define, it helps me to think about what I’d observe if I were to look at an organization with a strong or weak culture. What are the behaviors, the ways of working, and the interactions like? Below are a limited set of potential observations one might find in strong and weak cultures. Signs of a Strong Culture
Signs of a Weak Culture
Related: See my post on The Seven Learning Disabilities of Organizations from The Fifth Discipline by Peter Senge The Key to Building a Strong Culture…I’d be lying if I said that I knew the key to building a strong culture. There are days when I observe more bullets from the weak culture list than the strong culture list. Some bullets on the strong culture list seem hard to attain or difficult to sustain. Instead of a definitive answer, I have a few hypotheses and ideas that I’ll leave you with–they’re themes that I think about in some capacity on a near-daily basis.
By Candy Whirley on August 25, 2014 As I was receiving my Masters in Management degree from the University of Phoenix I was asked my opinion on the following question… Just a question to ponder. |