Culture matters.

Right now, your organization is experiencing a variety of tensions. They’re the inevitable gaps between where you are and where you want to be. They reflect the pull that’s constantly at play in any healthy, growing, changing organization — between past and future, between competing visions for the future, between different approaches for getting from here to there.

Tensions aren’t problems. They are the source of all growth.

There’s no “right” answer to tensions. But how you handle them matters. And because organizations are made up of human beings, the solutions aren’t just technical.  There is a social component to almost every opportunity and obstacle you face. 

That’s what culture is.  It’s your organization’s character and personality.  It’s how you come together to get things done.  It’s what people do when nobody’s looking. It’s the sum of your values, traditions, beliefs, interactions, behaviors, and attitudes.  It’s what attracts talent, drives engagement, determines satisfaction, and controls performance.  It’s how you turn your vision into reality.

You might have the best idea and plan, the most disruptive technology, the most transformative mission.  But unless you can get everybody on the same page and working together, you’re not going to get the traction you need or the results you want.

Culture changes.

With every interaction, your culture evolves.   As new people join, as others leave, your culture adapts.  Every time you come together to confront a challenge, you update the unwritten rules that define how your organization works.

During periods of rapid growth, stress, or significant change, cultural change can happen quickly. 

Handled well, this continuous cultural evolution can reinforce the best of how you work and lead your organization to its next healthy stage of growth.  Handled poorly, corrosive behaviors can take hold, altering your culture in ways that lead to disillusionment, turnover, poor results, or even failure.

When culture works, it really works.

When culture works, it’s as if you suddenly have more resources.  People are focused on the things that matter. Things move faster.  Results are better. 

You know your culture is working for you when:

• People are fully engaged

• Conflict is creative and energizing

• Decisions stick

• Work gets done

• Your brand shows through your actions

• You attract great-fit employees (and repel poor fits)

• You attract more, better, customers.

Culture building is a practice … and it can be learned.

Building culture isn’t about platitudes and placards.  It’s work.

Yet while there are scores of books and speakers dealing with culture, there’s relatively little that will teach you what to do to make your culture an engine for business success. 

That’s where Culture in Action comes in.

Culture in Action is a collection of seven specific practices that let you proactively build and continually reinforce the culture you want. 

You can apply these practices at the individual, team, or organizational level. 

You can teach yourself, or hire a guide.

But however you choose to use it, Culture in Action will give you the tools to identify, address, and act on actual challenges you face in a way that strengthens what you do and how you come together to do it.

How is Culture in Action different?

A different conversation.  Most organizations have lots of meetings about strategy, goals, and tactics. These typically focus on the here and now — what’s happening, what’s not, and what to do about it. But often, the real issues sit one layer deeper. Strategies, goals, and tactics don’t answer fundamental questions, like: When leaders don’t agree, how do I figure out who’s really calling the shots? How good is good enough? Will I get in trouble if I take risks that turn out poorly? If something’s broken - really broken - Is it ok to call that out? Culture is the set of unwritten rules that tell your employees how to answer those and many other fundamental questions. If you don’t take action to build the culture you want, the norms stay underground … and can quickly go awry. Culture in Action provides the framework for action. It creates a new space and forces honest conversations about real questions and tradeoffs you’re facing at the level of business culture.

Focus on actions.  Culture literature often focuses on values.  Values are important, but a functioning culture runs much deeper.  It is created and destroyed every day, through every interaction. As a result, generalized “culture building” sessions that focus on values, high-level aspirations, and abstract norms can’t alone build culture, any more than understanding the principles of good health can take the place of exercising and eating well. Culture in Action builds cultural muscle. It digs into actual business challenges, isolating how your culture is shaping action. It forces you to confront issues, commit to action, and be accountable for following through. It reinforces the behaviors that work for you. And it lets you clearly see the unwritten rules that aren’t working so you can change them.

Your organization, your culture.  Much of the literature on culture is made up of reflections on specific organizations or leaders at a particular moment in time.   You can get an assessment of the culture of Zappos, or Disney, or Southwest Airlines; you can read about somebody’s vision of a “good culture” or a “bad culture.” But your organization is unique.  And you are unique.  Culture in Action doesn’t tell you what culture you should want.  It doesn’t compare your culture to anybody else’s culture.  It does teach you how to proactively build and continually reinforce a set of cultural norms that are right for your organization.

Involving the team. While leaders play a crucial role in shaping culture, they can’t do it alone. Every member of the team needs to become skilled at identifying and working through the tensions you face. Every member of the team needs to be accountable for what they do and how their actions affect the broader team.. And you — as a leader — need to hear from those around you in order to understand reality: how people hear what you say, what they do when you’re not around, and what they believe, based on the culture they perceive, are the “real” rules in your organization.

Culture in action teaches you, your team, and your entire organization how to achieve the results you need while maintaining the culture you want.

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