Randal Weidenaar, Organizational Psychologist
Is there a perfect or ideal culture? Is there a culture that is better than others? Specifically, in the business realm is there one target blueprint culture we should all aim towards? Is there one culture that people thrive in and another where they will wither and disengage?
Leaving Culture to Outside Pressures is a Mistake
Unfortunately, like many others, I have been in many toxic work cultures. These cultures were trying to push forward some specific norms and behaviors. I remember being in one of my first work experiences, and this fog of shame and blame hovered over the work environment.
One of the worst was a marketing agency. We needed to processes; we were just supposed to get things right every time. When things went wrong, the blame guns came out blazing. There was a witch hunt to find out who did it, and then the shaming and recriminations would begin. This was partly due to the high stakes back then, as most marketing was in print, and to make a mistake would cost you dearly financially. So, the pressure and the absence of processes built this culture.
Leadership should have carefully and thoughtfully cultivated the culture; instead, it was what it was. And it was miserable.
I vowed I would never create a culture like that in my own leadership roles. Yet, I know I have replicated pieces of it myself in many of the organizations I have since led because I didn’t have an ideal blueprint for creating culture; I thought I just had to be friendly and hip, and all would go well.
As I studied organizational psychology, I focused on how we all respond to being valued and the effects of the “master molecule,” serotonin. It led me to focus on “the one thing that motivates all people” – being valued and realizing that great leaders have always begun there when building culture.
Yes, there is an ideal core culture blueprint
So, is there an ideal culture to which that first marketing business should have conformed? Definitely.
We believe there are three foundational steps to building an ideal culture for a thriving organization.
3 Foundations of the Ideal Culture
First, Have a Blueprint
Most organizations need an ideal culture blueprint but don’t have one. They invite consultants in, take webinars, tack on a book here, and the culture starts to look like a pieced-together hodge-podge of concepts. The problem is that people need help identifying the foundation vs. the parts built on top of the foundation. It leads to chaos and a poorly constructed culture.
When you focus on valuing people as the primary foundation, you connect with the brain science behind what we call “the operating system of humanity.” At VP Culture, we have designed blueprints that serve as your guiding plan to build the core of a strong culture around how the human brain works best when it is thriving in flow for maximum performance. This framework allows you to add other cultural elements in an organized and adequately tuned manner.
Second, Build on the Deepest Values, In the Right Order
When you build on a lesser value like “speed of innovation,” you create a culture that puts this first. As management focuses on “launch” as their top value, problems arise. We have seen severe safety issues be introduced with this approach. One remembers the Challenger O rings, which led to disaster, or the Boeing 737 MAX debacle.
Our research points to the most profound cultural value, valuing people and enabling all other organizational focus areas. When people are valued first, we find that areas of focus like “speed of innovation” can follow without damaging the organization. Focusing on loving people first and allowing their participation in the creation and execution of the rest of the culture yields the right priorities for success.
Third, Build with the Right People
You cannot build thriving, highly-performing teams with a decisive decree from on high. You need to have a bottom-up and top-down approach.
“Bottom-up” means each person needs to be empowered and given cultural coaching from front-line leaders to front-line workers. A few top-down pronouncements won’t do it. With front-line leaders, 70-90% of culture is built from the bottom up. Research shows more variation between teams in one organization than between competitors. The front line is critical.
Top-down is essential, too. If the top leaders communicate a focal culture and live it out, that message becomes loud and clear to the rest of the team.
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There is much more to building an incredible culture that helps your teams thrive. But these are some of the significant issues that are often overlooked when building that ideal corporate culture. It starts with recognizing that fundamental universal principles are the perfect blueprint for every civilization. Beginning with this blueprint will make all the difference between success and failure.