The name of the game is making use of what you cannot change by using some of the emotional forces within your current culture differently.įor further insights: See /10PrinciplesCulture If you cannot simply replace the entire machine, work on realigning some of the more useful cogs. You can plaster the walls with large banners proclaiming new values, but people will go about their days, right beneath those signs, continuing with the habits that are familiar and comfortable.īut this inherent complexity shouldn’t deter leaders from trying to use culture as a lever. Strongly worded memos from on high are deleted within hours. Formal efforts to change a culture (to replace it with something entirely new and different) seldom manage to get to the heart of what motivates people, what makes them tick. Corporate cultures are constantly self-renewing and slowly evolving: What people feel, think, and believe is reflected and shaped by the way they go about their business. Made of instinctive, repetitive habits and emotional responses, culture can’t be copied or easily pinned down. We find the most useful definition is also the simplest: Culture is the self-sustaining pattern of behavior that determines how things are done. However, it is an elusively complex entity that survives and evolves mostly through gradual shifts in leadership, strategy, and other circumstances. After all, a company’s culture is its basic personality, the essence of how its people interact and work. We don’t believe that swift, wholesale culture change is possible - or even desirable. If the answer to these last two questions is “rarely,” it wouldn’t surprise us. Here's how companies can use it to gain a competitive advantage. At its best, it is an emotional energizer. At its worst, culture can be a drag on productivity.