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I’d say probably 92 times out of 100, company executives call us up and say something like “We’ve heard you’re culture change experts and we need to change our culture. We’re thinking we want it to be more fun like that Tony what-his-name guy’s company – umm, Zappos.    Can you do a “we heart employees” (I say tongue-in-cheek) campaign or something to help us with that?”

Or: “We’ve had a lot of good people leave lately and we heard from the employee opinion survey that our culture stinks.  We’re thinking maybe we should start having ‘Jeans Friday.’ You think that would be a good start?”

And, here’s yet another recent one: “We need our employees to be self-starters – more motivated, more innovative.  What do we do with our culture to make our employees more that way?”

My inside-my-head voice is groaning “OMG.  Are you kidding me?”

And, my actual voice, out of wanting to truly help this poor soul, says something like “I’m glad you called us.  Let’s talk for a few minutes about this thing called culture and what you’re really trying to get at with your objectives….”

‘Culture’ is one of those mystical and elusive terms.  It often surfaces in hallway, manager and all-hands discussions as if it’s a kind of separate entity of its own, something that made itself, something that could be changed or tinkered with independently of the other elements that make up your business …and when we talk about “changing it,” it’s spoken about as if it’s a switch you can flip, a lever you can pull, and an initiative we need to implement.

I suppose if it were like that, it might make things simpler.  But it’s not.

Your culture is an outcome - of what you do, what you say and how you do things around here. It’s about the ways your business practices, values, leadership actions and employee attitudes and behaviors show up everyday.  It’s how an organization operates.  And, you cement this said culture over time with actions or inactions, paralysis or knee-jerk decisions, appreciation or hard-driving perfectionism, rewarding brilliant lone-star’s or compromising team players, giving responsibility or micromanaging tasks…

The individuals in your organization are essentially sharing patterns of behavior that they all observed, learned, and in more than a handful of cases, eventually assimilated to or rather, quit bucking if they were to “possibly survive here.”

Your culture might just have the chance to really change when you get to the real stuff.  Things like espresso machines, free lunches, business casual aren’t the point.

If you want a culture that oozes more positive juju, then you have to look at how it was formed in the first place – those things that are contributing to making it that way.  What you do advertently or perhaps inadvertently do, say, and convey as a company and as leadership?

Here are some of the questions we ask our clients to explore about themselves to begin really deep diving into how we do things around here and subsequently how the *culture* got to where it is now.

• How do you set priorities and goals? Is this process consistent with the kind of culture you want to have?
• How does accountability show up in your organization – how is it established and maintained? Are there accountabilities for line-level employees but not for leadership?  Do you have the appropriate metrics or do employees feel they have impossible standards to meet?
• How is information shared? Does leadership only share on a need-to-know basis?  Are employees fearful to share and thus, hoard information because that’s what keeps them valuable to the company?  Does leadership share early and share often, even before they feel a strategy is ready for prime-time?
• What are the priorities in company communications to employees? What is it that is actually getting airtime in your organization?  Is it something the employees can get behind, they can understand, they feel proud of?
• How is the truth shared and sought? Do things get pushed under the rug?  Are things out in the open?
• How do decisions get made? Who is involved in this process?  Is it leadership ‘do the thinking’ and employees ‘do the doing’ without opportunity for input?
• How does delegation occur? Is it truly effective delegation or is it relegation? Ultimately one party wiping their hands of it and passing the buck.
• How are ideas shared? Are they occurring freely?  Do employees want to contribute their best ideas to the company knowing they’ll be given a fair shake or chance to succeed?
• How does collaboration occur? That is, does true collaboration actually occur?  Are people incented to contribute to the collective or only as individual performers and how well they do their respective jobs?
• How are rewards given? Are brilliant jerks rewarded even if their ruthless personalities degrade morale and teamwork?  Are rewards given inconsistently across the organization?
• How do punishments occur and how are mistakes handled? Do people that hit a bad patch get another chance?  Does anyone ever really get fired for poor or non-performance?  Do some people get worse punishment simply because they have different managers?
• How valued is learning? Are you the type of organization that helps people to grow and deepen their expertise - or do you tend to pigeon hole and hold someone back because you need them in a specific role or effort?   Do you provide opportunities for mentoring and growth – or do your employees hide their lack of experience and understanding because they’re afraid they’ll be penalized for not knowing?
• How are people’s efforts appreciated? Are you the type of organization that gives an “A” for effort?  Or, is “hard work” irrelevant with knowledge that only effectiveness (not effort) is rewarded?
• How are risks encouraged and taken? Does risk taking apply to everyone or just a few of the top rung?  Do you encourage innovation and a fail-fast mindset?  Do you say you want innovation but shoulder employees with metrics squarely based on execution?
• How are successes celebrated? Is it something that is done publicly?  Is it something seldom done?  Are stories shared far and wide?  Are successes celebrated in a way that is meaningful to employees? Have you asked them what is meaningful to them?

You can also use these as a guide to think about the organization you want to have – and subsequently, a culture that better matches and is more congruent with your objectives as a business.

Are there other areas or questions we’re missing?  We’d love to hear where you think culture lives in organizations…

This post is a little personal.   And, (clears throat) I’m quite uncomfortable.  I’ve posed a personal blog challenge to myself and I have to say myself is somewhat itchy about it.  I suppose my challenge is not so much to blog more but to blog more real, more raw.  I think the reason I don’t blog much - is not because I don’t have ideas - but rather that I keep waiting for that complete thought, that epiphany, that beautiful brain bubble to fully materialize – and it doesn’t.  You see, I’m a bit of a perfectionist and therefore also sometimes / often a procrastinator.

I’m lucky that my team and I get to do the work we love.  We work with some of the largest and most prestigious brands in the world (big names, interesting projects– quite a handful that I can’t share on our website but you know who you are) helping them to make transformational change in their organizations…helping them solve some of their most vexing organizational issues – like how to collaborate, innovate, share knowledge, better communicate with their employees, uplevel their leadership…

Everyday I’m sharing with clients what they need to do to be successful in creating this environment for their employees  - they need to create a safety net for failure, they need to open their kimonos, they need to share more openly and allow debate, they need to get input on ideas from employees before they become steadfast commands on which to execute, they need to incent their teams, they need to distribute decision making and empower employees to make the right choices for the customers.

Well, man oh man, I have to say that as I was thinking about this blog post over the holiday, I realized that I often am not living up to the very things I espouse.  Oh, God, am I a change maker wannabe?

For instance, I am timid to write the blog, my next book, my next whatever because I don’t want my ideas to be up for scrutiny.  I’m afraid to be out there in the open and vulnerable.  Everything my team and I produce needs to be polished, exacting, absolutely complete before I let anyone see it.  I am steadfast on my ideas and convictions but then someone comes along who intimidates me pushing back or questioning me and I retreat.  As for failing on a project, a commitment, a relationship, it’s perfectly okay, in my mind, for others to misstep because they’re only human -- but as for me?  Nope, no way, no how….  I need to do it right the first time (every time) or I beat myself up for days.  My perfectionist streak has driven this car for quite a long time.

As you can imagine, I’m not normally so “open” about these things but I’ve had quite a year.  Really transformational in its own right.   Some up’s but a lot of down’s mostly due to an ailing mother who will lose a battle with cancer – and, all at once (after working through years on Earth being this way), a deep realization that being fearful, being in control and being stoic brings with it no progress, no growth and a desperate clinging to the old – in life or in work.

As I have contemplated the imprint I want to make on the world moving forward and building up the wherewithal to always be what I value and believe in, I have pondered what I believe are the things that really separate the ones who make change from the ones who simply say (or perhaps, believe) they do.

How you can be the change maker you’re meant to be…

• Trust yourself.  Really, really trust yourself.  You don’t trust that you’re necessarily *right* but you are secure enough in your ideas, hypotheses and convictions that you’re willing to put them out there for dialogue

• You can’t be a change maker if you’re afraid of being scrutinized and examined.  At your core, you have to be ready for someone to debate, disagree or call you stupid; all the while, hoping what you have to say resonates for at least one person and makes a difference.  Pontificating in safe company does not drive real change (Remember the whole “you’re preaching to the choir” thing) - You can’t be safe if you want to be prolific.

• Don’t let perfectionism cripple and sabotage you.    Give yourself permission to take actions everyday imperfectly.  Even though it may pull at you, you let your perfectionist mindset go because you know all it brings you is high stress and low output.  When you start to obsess or fret it’s not enough, you take a deep breath and keep dancing.  Change makers make steady, and sometimes only small actions every day – but they add up to transformation over time.  On the other hand, perfectionists rarely get started, because perfection is in very short supply.

• Don’t shield yourself with hubris and arrogance. There are a lot of people who put thoughts out there in the world but if you challenge them, even the slightest, they will attack you.  They’re not open to contribution or community.  They’re up for grandstanding, pontificating and letting you know how right - and important they are.  These people may believe they’re leading change but they’re often isolating themselves.  And truly, how impactful can someone in isolation be?

• You share your ideas and knowledge with unflinching courage. You don’t hoard because you trust that by sharing and learning with others, it doesn’t extinguish your flame, it helps it burn more brightly. You know that ideas and thoughts are infinite; not something in short supply to covet fearing you won’t be as valuable or others will steal your idea.  When you treat your thoughts and ideas in this limited way you’re worried about where the next one will come from, instead of treasuring and cultivating the ones you have.  It squelches your creativity.  I remember hearing something once, to the tune of,  “to guard the heart is to guard the mind which guards the thoughts…” and I am pretty sure you can’t really find your voice until you’ve let your heart be heard.

These are a few thoughts from my own experience and observations and there’s more to come (after all, there’s that personal blog challenge thingy) – I’d love to continue this list and hoping you will contribute ideas and stories to the mix.  What have you seen that really separates the change makers from the pack?

Happy New Year!

- S