Every year, Fortune magazine spotlights the “100 Best Companies to Work For.” They’ve been featuring this list for a long time now, and some companies have consistently made the list multiple times. While the companies on the list are varied – different industries, different sizes, different philosophies – the thread that I find interesting is this: they all do their best to treat their employees like people, like human beings with needs, relationships, with lives that intersect with what they happen to do for work.
These companies—not always, but overall—get the “people part.” They’re focused on creating a culture that enhances their work, rather than diminishing it.
If cash is king in financial matters, culture is king in relational matters. But compared to cold hard cash, culture—whatever it is—often feels fuzzy to practically minded folks. Culture doesn’t tend to respond to quarterly earnings deadlines, and yet it is far more important to short-term and long-term outcomes. It provides the underlying structure for what might be possible.
In other words, culture is often invisible. It’s the “default setting.” This may be a clue as to why many employers don’t get where to start. How do you change your default?
You can start by becoming aware of and noticing the obvious. (Be wary of always pointing it out, as my wife reminds me, and just observe it!) Look for the things you and everyone take for granted about how things work. What is your organization’s default on that issue? Is the answer to every question always “no,” for example? Are people chronically stressed, both at work and in their personal lives? What are the things that always seem to get done in the organization, and what is always procrastinated? Observing defaults like these will help you begin to get a real picture of how your culture actually operates—and that is more important than whatever verbiage occupies the latest PowerPoint.
Building that awareness is the first step to making cultural interventions that will ultimately change a culture. Those interventions often have to be made in the spaces your culture ignores, as head-on assaults on cultures can be counter-productive to long-term change. More on that in future posts.