Organizational Culture: A Key to Success

Editor's Notes

• #3: To tell you about my experience with building a high performance teams and implementing a winning culture in your organizations. Great performance can never come without great people and culture, and the opposite is also true – great people and culture are affiliated most with high-performing organizations. We can argue over which drives the other. But there is one undeniable truth: when a company is in its earliest days – when there is no performance or numbers to speak of – the key differentiators are the team, their purpose, and their culture. The team is the company’s raw DNA, the purpose their religion, and culture their unique way of operating based on common principles, norms, and values. Like aiming a rocket ship into orbit, if you get this wrong from the start, your trajectory will only get worse over time. Q. Who works in any type of a project that is run by a team? Please stand up. Q2: Is your team a high performance team? Who said “Yes” ? Are you a leader of this team? Q3: Would you like to improve the performance of your team?
• #4: I will not give you a step by step prescription how to increase the performance of your teams, sorry. I know, even the title of this speech is how to increase the peformance…. But I just wanted you to come and listen  Why not? It is more psychological and contextual rather than binary or engineering issue. It is not about proceess and tools, it is about… Humans!
• #5: I think we have all gone down this road. If not – you will probably go, even just do not know it yet. Over past 10 years or so we’ve been given with dozens of tools, processes, frameworks. Just to name a few: Scrum, Kanban, Lean (processes), tools (burndown charts, velocity, poker planning etc. They are very helpful if you want to improve your performance or simply – joy of engineering and software development. Daily standups? Sounds cool. Fancy bord with stick notes? Why not. However – these are tools and…only tools. That you can introduce either; 1) yourself 2) hire a coach to do so. I am not saying it is easy to introduce those. No, it is not. But I am also saying that this is not a silver bullet. I have seen orgasations where Scrum simply did not work. In my current organization, Scrum seems to be even too heavy for one of our R&D projects. It was the team to decide which process to follow, what tools to use. And they said: well, let’s take this and that from Scrum, but we probably do not need this and that…. Why I asked? What really matter is this intangible missing puzzle: the culture. And even more: a winning culture. But… what an organisational culture is?
• #6: What really matter is this intangible missing puzzle: the culture. And even more: a winning culture. But… what an organisational culture is? While there is universal agreement that (1) it exists, and (2) that it plays a crucial role in shaping behavior in organizations, there is little consensus on what organizational culture actually is, never mind how it influences behavior and whether it is something leaders can change. This is a problem, because without a reasonable definition (or definitions) of culture, we cannot hope to understand its connections to other key elements of the organization, such as structure and incentive systems. Nor can we develop good approaches to analyzing, preserving and transforming cultures. If we can define what organizational culture is, it gives us a handle on how to diagnose problems and even to design and develop better cultures. https://hbr.org/2013/05/what-is-organizational-culture&cm_sp=Article-_-Links-_-Top%20of%20Page%20Recirculation
• #7: Like a magnetic field that invisibly aligns iron shaving into intricate patterns, culture can align human thought and behavior into productive patterns. The energy of this cultural field comes from our deepest needs and aspirations: to survive, to belong, to achieve, to grow and to find meaning in our lives. We can only satisfy these needs in a community, and there’s no community without culture. Culture is consistent, observable patterns of behavior in organizations. Aristotle said, “We are what we repeatedly do.” This view elevates repeated behavior or habits as the core of culture and deemphasizes what people feel, think or believe. It also focuses our attention on the forces that shape behavior in organizations, and so highlights an important question: are all those forces (including structure, processes, and incentives) “culture” or is culture simply the behavioral outputs? The Glue Culture is a carrier of meaning. Cultures provide not only a shared view of “what is” but also of “why is.” In this view, culture is about “the story” in which people in the organization are embedded, and the values and rituals that reinforce that narrative. It also focuses attention on the importance of symbols and the need to understand them — including the idiosyncratic languages used in organizations — in order to understand culture. Immune system Culture is a social control system. Here the focus is the role of culture in promoting and reinforcing “right” thinking and behaving, and sanctioning “wrong” thinking and behaving. Key in this definition of culture is the idea of behavioral “norms” that must be upheld, and associated social sanctions that are imposed on those who don’t “stay within the lines.” This view also focuses attention on how the evolution of the organization shaped the culture. That is, how have the existing norms promoted the survival of the organization in the past? Note: implicit in this evolutionary view is the idea that established cultures can become impediments to survival when there are substantial environmental changes. Culture is a form of protection that has evolved from situational pressures. It prevents “wrong thinking” and “wrong people” from entering the organization in the first place. It says that organizational culture functions much like the human immune system in preventing viruses and bacteria from taking hold and damaging the body. The problem, of course, is that organizational immune systems also can attack agents of needed change, and this has important implications for on-boarding and integrating people into organizations. We know now, more or less, what is it. But is there any formal definition? Sure it is.
• #8: Organizational culture is a set of shared assumptions that guide what happens in organizations by defining appropriate behavior for various situations An effective culture is the key to strategy execution, and conscious leadership is the key to an effective culture. Thus organizations succeed when their leaders consciously develop an effective culture, and fail when they don’t. …is that true?
• #9: Well: it is. An effective culture is the key to strategy execution, and conscious leadership is the key to an effective culture. Thus organizations succeed when their leaders consciously develop an effective culture, and fail when they don’t. Why is culture so important to a business? Here is a simple way to frame it. The stronger the culture, the less corporate process a company needs. When the culture is strong, you can trust everyone to do the right thing. People can be independent and autonomous. They can be entrepreneurial. And if we have a company that is entrepreneurial in spirit, we will be able to take our next “(wo)man on the moon” leap. Ever notice how families or tribes don’t require much process? That is because there is such a strong trust and culture that it supersedes any process. In organizations (or even in a society) where culture is weak, you need an abundance of heavy, precise rules and processes. There are days when it’s easy to feel the pressure of our own growth expectations. Other days when we need to ship product. Others still where we are dealing with the latest government relations issue. It’s easy to get consumed by these. And they are all very important. But compared to culture, they are relatively short-term. These problems will come and go. But culture is forever Culture eats strategy for lunch, claimed Peter Drucker But let’s look at some facts first.
• #10: Dr. John P. Kotter is the Konosuke Matsushita Professor of Leadership, Emeritus, at the Harvard Business School,[1] a New York Times best-selling author,[2] the founder of Kotter International (a management consulting firm based in Seattle and Boston),[3] and a well-known thought leader in the fields of business, leadership, and change.[4] So what is a winning culture and how to build it?
• #11: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/culture-key-organizational-success-24-fred-kofman By upholding our core values in everything we do. Culture is a thousand things, a thousand times. It’s living the core values when you hire; when you write an email; when you are working on a project; when you are walking in the hall. We have the power, by living the values, to build the culture. We also have the power, by breaking the values, to fuck up the culture. Each one of us has this opportunity, this burden. Culture is made of norms. For example, norms such as “be open, honest and constructive,” and “act like an owner” don’t tell us how to solve a problem--as a rule or a micromanager would do. They just require us to elevate our perspective and try to collaborate to optimize for the company as a system and not for our selves of our teams as sub-systems. http://www.inc.com/will-yakowicz/how-to-build-a-scalable-culture-from-scratch.html So.. How to build such a winning culture? Solidify your mission. - Why? "This is about mission, not marketing. What calling does your business serve? This should feel authentic, inspirational, and aspirational," Tjan writes. "The companies with strong purpose are the ones we tend to love best because they feel different--Chipotle, Pret a Manger, Ikea, Container Store, or Apple to name a few. Whether it's trying to just offer better food, or democratize great design, the cause behind the brand is clear." Lay out your values and standards. After your "why" statement is all set, you need to set values and standards to help reinforce it. "Great cultures need a common language that allows people to actually understand each other. "First, a common set of values, which are the evergreen principles of the firm, and second, a common set of standards by which a business will measure how they're upholding those principles." Live your culture. As the leader, you need to be the living example of your own culture. Company leaders "must be the strongest representations of the firm's culture and purpose, not just writing or memorizing the mission statement, but rather internalizing and exemplifying what the company stands for. As examples, look at how Steve Jobs defined Apple's culture and how Richard Branson continues to represent Virgin. Support your cultural ambassadors. You cannot keep your culture alive by yourself. You need a team of culture ambassadors, people who bleed your company's culture and purpose. If that culture and purpose are strong enough, ambassadors will manifest naturally. But Tjan says you need to make sure they know and feel how important to your company they are: "Do you know who these people are? Have you rewarded them and thanked them? At a time when outsourcing functions such as customer service or automating checkout procedures are becoming more common, the role of frontline cultural ambassadors does not diminish, but rather disproportionately increases and can become a real competitive advantage." Hire for character, not skill. Skills can be learned and honed, but character cannot. Tjan says that in order to perpetuate your company's culture, you need to look for employees who not only are talented but have the character that fits within your company. "The mantra at our own firm is that in the end it's always about people and character," he writes. "When recruiting folks, spend more time screening for character than you do screening for skill." Tjan says he got this hiring practice from Southwest Airlines, which refers to its practice as "hire for attitude and train for skill." Tjan says you need to hire A players, because great employees will attract more great employees. "Compromising on talent that is good enough but not necessarily the best you think you can get, especially in pivotal job roles, is a sure formula to short-circuit your own culture and long-term performance," he writes.
• #12: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/hiring-based-company-culture-jan-tegze?trk=hp-feed-article-title-like From a more professional standpoint, and according to investopedia.com, company culture "refers to the beliefs and behaviors that determine how a company's employees and management interact and handle outside business transactions. Often, corporate culture is implied, not expressly defined, and develops organically over time from the cumulative traits of the people the company hires. A company's culture will be reflected in its dress code, business hours, office setup, employee benefits, turnover, hiring decisions, and treatment of clients, client satisfaction and every other aspect of operations.” Everybody knows this situation: you have an interview with a potential employee and he has a fantastic resume, lots of skills that you are looking for and he is a brilliant during the interview. Yet, somehow after he join the company he is not performing as you expected. His working style and behavior are inconsistent with the values and expectations of your organization. You start wondering if you made a mistake, how you made the wrong choice, and what happened to the man from the interview. You can avoid this situation by taking your organization’s cultural fit into account during the recruitment process and focusing more on how the candidate is going to be in line with company culture and values. During your recruitment process, companies are not only looking for the right skills and experience, they are trying to evaluate if the candidate will fit into the company culture. And because we are spending almost a third of our lives at work and around our colleagues, it’s important for employees to be working in an environment we enjoy and to be a part of a culture that is going to help us grow. “ Our number one priority is company culture. Our whole belief is that if you get the culture right, most of the other stuff, like delivering great customer service or building a long-term enduring brand, will just happen naturally on its own. ” - Tony Hsieh, Zappos The reason why I mentioned Zappos is not that I just like them, but because they are bold enough to try new things, and as a company, they really value cultural fit. In fact, they value it so much, Zappos will pay new hires a $2,000 bonus to leave if they are not fully confident the company is right for them. People who are not culturally fit for a company are like sand in the motor. They can easily slow the company down, stop it for some time or worst of all, break it. When you make a wrong hire, it can cost you not only money, but possibly your people because they are going to be frustrated by the toxic environment that the wrong hire creates. These days, companies can’t afford hiring mistakes like wrong hires, which are costly and can affect the morale of the whole team. As an employer doing interviews, interview on core value fit. Why is Company Culture Important to Your Success? Every great company culture starts with great core values. Typically, values come from the top (CEO, VP, Directors, Managers etc.), and the culture will develop through the actions of all people within the company. A strong company culture is associated with many positive outcomes like happy employees, more productive employees, and higher retention. Recruitment and good company culture are the perfect match. Your company culture is about the brand image. How candidates see you is going to affect them in either a positive or negative way. Companies that take culture seriously are those who actively market their culture to candidates while their employees act as brand ambassadors. By having a positive approach towards your people and sharing your company culture and values, your company will attract the people who believe in the same values as you. Having a strong company culture also discourages people who are not going to succeed in your company from applying. What to Do? During the interview, always be thinking of your other employees. Keep in mind that studies show diverse groups function more effectively. Fight the urge to only hire people you feel personal connections with. Try to hire people that believe in the same values as you and try to avoid hiring people that act like you. Never forget that the most important asset that any business/organization has is people. Even if you are see some candidate as the perfect fit, they could be the person to destroy your team. If you have team full of team players and your potential employee gives you indication that they prefer to work alone, you should continue with the search and not hire this person. It’s better to slowly hire, quickly fire, and take your time next time to ensure you’re getting the right person. To judge fit, interviewers commonly relied on chemistry. “The best way I could describe it,” one member of a law firm’s hiring committee told me, “is like if you were on a date. You kind of know when there’s a match.” Many used the “airport test.” As a managing director at an investment bank put it, “Would I want to be stuck in an airport in Minneapolis in a snowstorm with them?” (reference from nytimes.com) How to Prevent a Bad Hire? When you deal with a bad hire, try to document what went wrong and when you make a mistake. Make sure that your future steps will prevent a similar problem. There are three simple steps to avoiding a bad hire: Always be clear about company’s values and culture. Always ask questions about culture like “How does our culture compare to the last place you worked?" Let candidates ask questions about your culture. If you hired someone who is simply a bad fit, they will either realize their performance is not a high enough caliber and leave, or you will notice they are not what you thought they were and terminate them. If this happens, don’t look for excuses. These things happen from time to time in every company. We are all humans who make mistakes, but we also learn from our mistakes. It’s better to accept it and end the employment as soon as possible before investing too much money and time to trying to fix the problems that bad hires cause. If you think about the time you are going to spend with finding the solutions to problems created from a bad hire, you will see that it’s better to invest your time in searching for a replacement. Certain company cultures really motivate some people while demotivating others and you certainly want an employee who is going to add to your company culture, not make it worse and cause more problems. As a candidate, always do you research before you accept an offer. Every company has a career page about how cool they are, but not every company is going to be the right company for you. If you are not part of the right company culture, it is going to affect you negatively. If you are not happy, you’re less productive, which could affect your personal brand and affect your next career. You could be a super start in one company, but the second company could demotivate you to the point that you become a low performer. Even worse, the next company could see you as a bad hire based on your most recent performance. Company culture can vary from department to department, and even from manager to manager, so as a company you need to be consistent. Every person at the company should be aligned with company culture and values. If you have multiple offices, don’t forgot to invest time in checking if the company culture is the same in every location and that all employees understand the company values. To the outside world, you are one company and one team, so you need to act like it, no matter the location. This practice, known as “hire for attitude and train for skill,” was pioneered by Southwest about 40 years ago, helping to explain its track record as an admired, purpose-driven company "Great performance can never come without great people and culture, and the opposite is also true--great people and culture are affiliated most with high-performing organizations," Tjan writes. Finding (and keeping) the right talent and creating a culture to support them impacts the bottom line. According to Gallup, the combined effect of creating the right culture, selecting the right talent, and focusing on employees’ strengths can boost revenue-per-employe by 59 percent. So to become a company that attracts visionary, innovative thinkers, you have to be an innovative, visionary company. But how do you do that concretely? There are several steps you can take to begin creating a unique, purposeful culture. Startups have a unique chance to create a conscious culture that attracts the type of creativeemployees they need to grow. Instead of focusing on which perks will get top talent in the door, create a work culture that will get them to stick around. Is it Really Important to Hire People for a Cultural Fit? From my point of view, it is important but not the most important thing that you need to focus on during the interviews. I think it is wise not to look for a duplicate of your current employees, because you can overlook talented candidates that will be able to bring the fresh perspective that every company needs. But always try to focus on team players, because as you know there is no “I” in team and your corporation is not a one man show. The success of the company is made by a team of people. Do you believe that culture fit matters?
• #16: https://medium.com/@bchesky/dont-fuck-up-the-culture-597cde9ee9d4 Do you know who Peter Thiel is? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Thiel Peter Andreas Thiel (born October 11, 1967) is an American entrepreneur, venture capitalist, hedge fund manager, and social critic. Thiel co-founded PayPal with Max Levchin and Elon Musk (see PayPal Mafia) and served as its CEO. He also co-founded Palantir, of which he is chairman. He was the first outside investor in Facebook, the popular social-networking site, with a 10.2% stake acquired in 2004 for $500,000, and sits on the company's board of directors. Thiel serves as president of Clarium Capital, a global macro hedge fund with $700 million in assets under management; a managing partner in Founders Fund, a venture capital fund with $2 billion in assets under management; co-founder and investment committee chair of Mithril Capital Management; and co-founder and chairman of Valar Ventures.[4][5][6] Thiel was ranked #293 on the Forbes 400 in 2011, with a net worth of $1.5 billion as of March 2012.[2] He was ranked #4 on the Forbes Midas List of 2014 at $2.2 billion.[7] Thiel lives in San Francisco.[8]