A 10-Step Guide — building a culture everyone wants to work for
You are not building an organization, you are building people who build an organization.
Below are 10 guidelines to help build a more vibrant, productive, & engaged culture within your organization….
Specifically , we have broken down the guidelines into two categories:
- How to foster initiative within your teams and how to use this to drive progress across your organization.
- How to support a sense of connection within your teams and how to use this to drive integration across your organization.
Use them together or one at a time to start building a better future for your organization. (if you’re visual, you can use the visualisations in part 3 to help)
Part 1: Supporting Connection to drive Integration
1. Authentic lead Transparency:
“The clarity and depth of a river are not always related”
We often think of transparency as a window, a glance through our exterior and into the core of who we are. Transparency allows people from the outside to see beyond the veneer and view the internal structure that support the framework.
If transparency is a window, then authenticity is a mirror. The closer people from the outside look, the more detailed view they will see of themselves. Authenticity allows people to see beyond their silhouette and into the components that create the composition.
In other words, if you’re authentic people will see themselves more clearly, if you are transparent people will see you more clearly.
Driving organizational impact requires both transparency & authenticity. However, it is important that you help people understand themselves and their relative context to your goals before you try to help people understand you and your goals.
The clarity and depth of a river are not always related — so don’t just ask people to jump because your vision is transparent — inspire individuals to discover the depth of what they are jumping into and you won’t need to ask them to jump.
2.Purpose lead Belonging:
“Belonging is relative to others, purpose is absolute only to yourself”
The ability to lead does not stem from either your mastery of a craft (IQ) or your ability to create environments of understanding (EQ). Rather, the best leaders understand that leadership is delicate balance between individual mastery and collaborate understanding .
Belonging is relative — it exists beyond the self and survives on the beliefs of others. Creating a sense of belonging is not about understanding the boundaries for yourself, but about discovering the boundaries of where others have been.
Purpose, however, is absolute — it exists within the self and survives on the belief of the individual. Creating a sense of purpose is not about understanding the boundaries of where others have been, but about discovering the boundaries for yourself.
It is at the juxtaposition of Belonging & Purpose where vibrant communities are formed.
3.Understanding lead Mindfulness:
“Black is the absence of color and is created when light is absorbed. White is the display of all colors and is created when light is reflected.
Culture is no different, in that the absorption of contrast creates an absence of culture where as a reflection of contrast creates a display of culture.”
When groups or organizations are mindful of those around them without working to understand who they are, it creates pressure for individuals to fit into what is the norm of society. That is, it encourages contrast to be absorbed into what already exists, and creates an absence of group identity.
However, when groups work to understand the individuals around them, and use this understanding to be mindful of those individuals, it creates a space for contrast to be expressed. The unitary white light of the group can pass through a prism and reflect the spectrum of contrasts between individuals and display what was hidden in plain sight.
Culture should be a reflection, not an absorption, of the differences of its individuals.
4.Trust lead Decisions:
“For many, to take action requires orders — but restraint of action requires trust”
Sun Tzu said that “The true art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting”
In the majority of military conflicts or civil uprisings we often see the escalation of authority and the categorization of decisions. Ideas are quickly slotted into hierarchies based on the immediate and actions are quickly regimented into process for the present.
This description can often be applied to a new CEO joining an organization— particularly if that firm has not been meeting financial expectations.
The ability for individuals to make decisions is crucial to integration — it is why military leaders & CEO’s alike design structures that support the ability to make decisions — through standardized hierarchies & processes.
However, this encourages a decision to be made at each level of hierarchy and each level of the process. This can, and does, lead to bad decisions being made by ill-informed leaders through inefficient processes.
Impact is equally about the decisions one makes as well as the decisions one recognizes are beyond their control.
Support hierarchies & processes where individuals are recognized not only for their resilience in actions but their conviction beyond action.
5.Listening lead Acceptance
“The key to influence is what you say, the key to communication is how you listen”
When we think of great leaders, whether in business, politics, the military, history, etc, we often think of their great speeches.
With Job’s we think of the introduction of the Mac & “think different”
With Reagan we think of “Mr. Gorbachov, tear down this wall”
With Churchill we think “Never was so much owed by so many to so few”
But this misses a key element of their ability to lead. All may have been strong voices & stubborn influencers, but they also understood when to listen.
They did not achieve success by talking to the audience. They achieved success by listening to them.
The Mac was the voice of the consumer.
Tearing down the wall was the voice of the citizen.
Churchill’s gratitude was the voice of humanity.
Do not chase other’s acceptance with words, but show awareness of their voice and they will chase your acceptance.
Part 2: Fostering Intiative to drive Progress
6.Accomplishment lead Fulfilment
“Accomplishment is acknowledgement of what you achieve, fulfilment is acknowledgement of what you don’t”
When Muhammad Ali was asked how many sit-ups he did, he responded,
“I don’t count my sit-ups, I only start counting when it starts hurting, when I feel pain, that’s when I start counting, cause that’s when it really counts.”
For Ali, his fulfillment did not come from his physical exertion alone, but rather from his acknowledgement of how much more exertion he could extend.
Most Athletes would say that he demonstrates the “attitude of a winner” but that is too binary. What he demonstrated is purpose driven self-awareness. He does not chastise himself for doing less than 100 or praise himself for doing more than 1,000. He is not about the numbers — he is about his own absolute purpose and own relative capabilities.
To be a leader, start to see yourself in light of your own purpose, not others. Be aware of your colleagues, friends, and relationships own relative purposes —and acknowledge them for success within their framework, not yours.
To drive mutual fulfilment across an organization, respect the goals of individuals and place value in each unique personal experience.
7.Enjoyment lead Celebration
“Enjoyment is what pulls us forward, celebration is what stops us from falling back”
Think about things in your life you enjoy — perhaps a holiday, the sunshine the rain, a glass of wine, a bottle of wine, etc
Now think about the things you celebrate — your birthday, a religious holiday, your country’s independence, etc
Enjoyment is what pulls us forward. Celebration is what stops us from falling back.
To achieve high impact goals, use the carrot of enjoyment to focus your organization while allowing celebrations along the way to act as a backstop for the progress you have made.
Don’t just enjoy the strategy at the beginning and celebrate completion at the end. To achieve challenging and high impact goals, recognize resilience throughout.
8.Ownership lead Interdependence
“Life is a competition between our stability as an ecosystem today, and fragility of self without evolution tomorrow”
In Gulliver’s Travels, Jonathan Swift wrote that, “Every man desires to live long, but no man wishes to be old”.
To expand on this wisdom, we may strive to be remembered for our mastery of our craft but it will be humanities ability to build upon that craft for what we will be remembered.
Alan Smith may be the one of the worlds greatest Economists, but he will be judged by how the world builds upon Capitalism.
Steve Jobs may be one of the worlds greatest Innovators, but he will be judged by how the world builds upon Apple.
Barack Obama may be one of the worlds greatest politicians, but he will be judged by how the world builds upon his policies.
No matter the relative extent of your mastery, no matter how many competitors you overcome, your legacy will not be based on these successes.
Rather, it will be how the next generations build upon your accomplishments that will determine your legacy.
9.Creativity lead Innovation
“Discovery is a balance between what you know you don’t know and what you don’t know you do”
Creativity is not about applying different or “out there” ideas to traditional or “boring” concepts. Similarly, Innovation is not synonymous with change or progress.
Creativity is about redrawing the definitions, not about redefining the product.
Innovation is about questioning what is impossible, not about changing what is possible.
Don’t confuse productivity with creativity.
Don’t confuse progress with innovation.
Discovery is a balance between what you know you don’t know and what you don’t know you do.
10. Adaptability lead Collaboration
“Moving in the same direction may help you in a sprint, but most problems are a tango”
Group-think: when a group collaborates on how to best adapt as a group
Group-do: when a group adapts for how to best collaborate as a group.
The great Mongol army of Genghis Khan is a prime example of group-do. They were short, rode short horse, had comparatively small swords, and were organized in small units which were free to attack without central permission. And they were effective.
When they captured a territory or region, despite their brutality, they did not immediately kill the heads of state, massacre the remaining army generals, or even destroy the inventions that challenged their understanding of the world.
Rather, they judged them and their achievements against their own — if there was something to be gained by adapting what they had, they would do so.
And so Genghis Khan was the most effective conquerer the world has ever known.
He did not try to collaborate as a group for how best to adapt to a surprise enemy attack or a confusing invention. Rather, he adapted himself and his army to be able to collaborate with any situation they faced.
Collaboration is not about empowering the group to adapt and for individuals to be right.
Rather, Collaboration is about empowering individuals to be wrong and allowing the group to adapt.
Part 3: Summary (with visualisations)
If you’re visual, what does this look like?
To understand why each area was split into two parts;.
Initiative is about aligning Individual Priorities with their Individual ability to have an Impact
Progress is about aligning Organizational Priorities with an Organizations ability to have an Impact
Connection is about aligning Individual Priorities with an Organizations ability to have an Impact
Integration is about aligning Organizational Priorities with an Individuals ability to have an Impact.
Therefore, this whole concept can be brought together:
The key to building a culture everyone will want to work for is how balance all 10 guidelines without one guideline or area outshining the others.
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