Design

Any senior team should view establishing their company culture as one of their most important activities as leaders. Culture is a result of deliberate, intentional action. Not only should an organization’s structure have tight alignment with the organization’s business strategy, but a purpose-built culture should also be consistent with that strategy. Culture, along with organizational structure, is a lever that the most successful leaders use to drive performance. Leaders can purposefully shift an organization’s culture by modeling desired behaviors.

Organizational culture can either help or hinder the way your employees identify with your company and its mission. Organizational culture represents your business’s core values, rewarded behaviors, and, ultimately, performance drivers. Culture plays a significant role in driving the level of employee engagement. When employees don’t feel connected to your company culture—or your culture is toxic or non-existent—they disengage. Workers who aren’t in tune with your company culture, values, or leadership will never feel like they belong, and because of that disconnect, they’ll never put in discretionary effort or go the extra mile to help your business succeed. Because of this, smart organizations actively manage their culture.

1. Map cultural factors to the strategy.

This part is simple: A positive culture is one whose core values align with the business strategy. You have to decide and choose which core values and behaviors you want employees to embody.

For example, if your company operates in a regulated environment that requires careful attention to working with process and protocol, you want a culture that values critical thinking, following standard operating procedures, and managing risk. Your culture won’t need to be as focused on innovation and new product development; while these may be worthy pursuits, they don’t align with your goals.

Translate your business strategy into values, norms, and practices that will directly support it. You can use the same strategic inputs you used to map your leadership competencies.

2. Identify current culture fit in relation to business strategy.

Assess your organizational culture by using a combination of engagement surveys, focus groups, and simple observation. Examine the following (click each dimension for more information):

You’re likely to find areas where your culture aligns with your strategy, but you’ll also likely find gaps. Identify any changes you need to make to your current culture to better support your business strategy.

3. Develop and execute a plan to address culture gaps.

There are many ways to change your organizational culture over time. These include making changes to your rewards system, how you communicate and make decisions, who you promote, or how you set up your physical working environment to better align with your strategy. 

For example, if your strategy requires improved cross-functional collaboration, create a rewards system that recognizes individuals who exhibit this type of behavior. When employees see a peer recognized for sharing information, resources, and suggestions, those employees will be more likely to do the same in the future.

Execute your cultural change plan with the following actions (use the arrows to click through):