Flipping Corporate Culture on Its Head

Corporate culture is a topic of conversation everywhere nowadays.  Seems you can’t swing a dead cat without hitting a blog post on how to create, manage, maintain and mold a corporate culture.  Don’t get me wrong – I think corporate culture is critical to long-term success for any company.  Without culture you just have a bunch of mercenaries waiting for the next raise or job offer that brings them more money and/or prestige (mostly the money though.)

Culture is what keeps us connected.  Culture is deep seated.  By definition culture is the set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices that characterizes an institution or organizations.  Key in that definition is “shared.”  If only one person has values, goals and practices it ain’t culture.

Conventional Wisdom

Conventional wisdom says that senior leadership drives culture.  Posts, articles, tweets, what have you all talk about how culture is driven down into the organization based on Execs walking the talk and rewarding the behaviors that represent the desired culture in the organization.  I agree.

Typically you’ll see culture illustrated as a pyramid – with executive behaviors and reward strategies being driven down into the organization like the image below.

 

That is what I think most folks think of when they imagine the flow of culture in an organization.  

Unfortunately, when I look at that image I see a very wide and strong base that supports the levels above them.

It communicates to me that the most important part of the culture is the lowest level – that’s where the real strength resides.  While it is true that if your employee base lives, breathes and behaves your culture you do have a very strong platform for success. 

But it also communicates that the top level of the pyramid is less important.

Flip the Pyramid

Let’s try this… flip the pyramid and see what is communicated now…

 

When I see this image I think – wow – that thing could tip over at any time if the bottom level (now the senior managers) ever crumbled or if it moved in any direction.  

The entire culture is now supported by a fine point at the top (now the bottom) of the pyramid.

From my point of view this communicates much better how important the senior levels are with respect to defining and driving culture in an organization.  Flipping the pyramid truly highlights the precariousness of culture in an organization. 

It won’t take much to tip that inverted pyramid over.  And we’ve seen it happen time and time again.  One or two bad apples can really affect the organizations culture.

I challenge you to use this image in your discussion of corporate culture – let’s put the emphasis where the emphasis belongs – at the point.

Culture, good or bad, unfortunately rests on a very narrow point at the bottom (top) of your company pyramid.  

Comments

[Mcarthursrant.blogspot.com]

You make an excellent point here. It raises all sorts of issues around truth, executive fear of exposure, communication channels etc. I've seen a similar idea being applied to "value add".

[Kategreysf.wordpress.com]

Wow, this graphic becomes especially vivid when I think about the bad cultures I've had the misfortune to work in. It becomes very clear how poor leadership with a veneer of entitlement affects the culture throughout the organization. When I think of the more positive environments I worked in earlier in my career, I don't think the point was quite as visceral. I might not have been able to see your point so clearly using the more positive environments as a reference point.

At the same time, I'm not entirely sure the pyramid, right side up or upside down, is exactly the right analogy. Seems to me that organizational culture depends on a lot more than just a few people at the top.

[Paul Hebert]

Thanks Scott for stopping by and commenting. I think execs who think culture is for "everyone else" have the issue with truth/fear/exposure. Little do they know however, that a poor culture already knows that the execs are hiding things and being less than truthful.

[Paul Hebert]

Kate - thanks for the comment. By definition culture is the sum total of shared values - so you're right that it is a function of all the people.

However, just like in a family - the culture starts with the leadership and the behaviors they model. There is a reason that poor parenting behaviors are passed along - that is what is taught and reinforced in the home - same at an organization.

While a company culture can exist in spite of the behaviors of the executives - it is very difficult thing. We act like our leaders do - that's just how we're wired.

Can you think of an organization that has a culture that is different than the behavior of it's executives?

[Derek Irvine, Globoforce]

Again, brilliant post, Paul. Wise observation, indeed, that a company's culture is precariously balanced on the actions/behaviors of a very few top executives. I wrote many months ago on a couple of posts from Wally Bock's 3-Star Leadership blog on how new executives quickly and very effectively destroyed the powerful, positive cultures of Home Depot and Delta Airlines.

One of Wally's nuggets of wisdom: "Culture is a powerful but fragile thing. If you burn down the culture tree, it takes a long time to grow another one."

Too true. Rest of the post is here: http://globoforce.blogspot.com/2009/07/are-you-watering-your-culture-tree_08.html

[Patrick Ahern]

Thanks for the post, well said. Leadership buy-in and accountability for modeling/ changing their behavior is the number 1 challenge our clients and most of corporate America faces.

I would agree with you that "culture" is at the top of the buzzword list. However, in my experience I have found that most leaders don't actually know what their company culture is. They don't know for a few reasons:

1. Most leaders are afraid to truly investigate what the culture is because of what they might hear - fear of reality.
2. Egos - many leaders don't want to listen to their employees, they just want to talk at them because they are the smartest and therefore highest paid in the company.
3. Leaders leave the culture to HR. HR departments are responsible for employee satisfaction and culture surveys. The typical surveys don't even scratch the surface with respect to investing the reality of the culture. The reason being is that the surveys are not focused on understanding the belief set of the employees and the behaviors that are going on in the organization. Asking employees what they think about the benefit packages and vacation policy is not helping understand the culture.

[Paul Hebert]

Thanks for commenting Derek - Mr. Bock always has a nugget that we can use every day. I think we forget how fragile culture is.

[Paul Hebert]

Patrick - great, great points. We really need to get the leaders thinking about their impact on the company. Maybe these high-paid executives also leave the "culture" development of their children in the hands of the nanny too!

[Eric Means]

Hi Paul,
Great post! I agree that the individuals are what drives culture. I have seen first hand though, how uppers can drive out a great culture in very short period of time. It only takes one or two bad apples. During these occurences I have seen the uppers wonder what is wrong with productivity and people. They don't see the real reason for goals not being met, which is because they drove culture right out the door and brought morale to an all time low. I often wonder how they do not look in the mirror and say, I am a terrible leader I need to change. Everyone usually sees the obvious except them, or they just dont want to admit failure.

[Paul Hebert]

Unfortunately, leaders - especially those with very powerful personalities - rarely get good information. No one will tell the leader that they are the cause of poor culture. Emperor's New Clothes.

Appreciate the comments Eric.

[Kate Grey]

Well, only one. And it's hardly statistically significant, just an observation: State government. In my observation, you can have driven, motivated, concerned leaders at the top, but it doesn't always permeate through the staff culture. It's a different animal with different drivers. An anomaly, really -- you've convinced me of your wisdom about most organizations!

[Paul Hebert]

Unfortunately, I cannot comment since I try to leave my political views outside the door on this site. I will say this though - I don't know if I agree that government - whether state or federal - has leaders who are driven, motivated and concerned. Just sayin'.

[fran melmed]

paul, i really like this visual of the teetering culture, with a very broad base but precariously balanced on the shoulders of a few.

thanks for the idea/visual.

f

[Paul Hebert]

Thanks Fran... I think it's helpful to put Exec behavior in perspective. Culture still is the sum total - just some behavior has more impact on the total than others.

Did I just channel George Orwell there?