Nowadays, almost nobody denies the special importance of corporate culture: There are numerous studies that prove its significance, be it in terms of employee satisfaction, innovative strength or economic success. And even without studies, it is obvious that companies must continuously develop in a turbulent environment to operate in line with the market and survive in the war for talent.
But in practice, it is often a long way from this insight to successful culture development. Why is that?
On the factual level, culture development is only challenging to a limited extent: If a company is clear about its current culture and the future challenges (of the market), it is relatively easy to describe the "necessary" culture of the future in a small group. However, the problem with such projects lies less in the factual logic and more in the psycho-logic: The new culture should not only adorn glossy brochures, but also be accepted by leaders and employees and lived in everyday life. Most people find it easier to accept change if they are involved in it. However, broad participation makes such a project less controllable and manageable. Companies operate differently in this area of tension - with decisive effects on culture development.
Quite a few top management teams prefer to rush into supposedly "hard" topics, such as a cost-cutting program. Such things are much easier to control and manage. What they disregard is the fact that they (often) ignore the culture dimension. Consequently, the attitudes, values and behaviors necessary for the sustainable implementation of their plans remain untouched. They - consciously or unconsciously - leave the "culture work" to chance.
The result: Culture always develops (further) when people come together and interact, but not in a conscious and goal-oriented way.
Other management teams spend a long time considering who is suitable to participate in such culture formats. The choice often falls on leaders who have proven themselves to be loyal in recent years. In terms of content, the primary focus is on keeping everything under control. The focus is on planning and less on implementation and impact of the measures. It is not uncommon to suspect that the entire Culture Journey is a "check-the-box project".
The result: Culture is continuing to develop, but not to the extent hoped for.
Culture development takes time and resources and does not happen overnight. In a world that is changing ever more dynamically and fundamentally, a healthy balance between short-term and long-term thinking and acting is a challenge. How do companies deal with this?
Some companies are so focused on short-term success that any investment in the future seems unnecessary. They prefer to optimize their existing products and services to secure their business and their customers in the here and now. In doing so, they use existing resources and skills exclusively to increase efficiency and profitability. Leaders should focus on the business and not be distracted by working on culture, themselves and their employees.
The result: Culture only develops within this self-imposed, narrow framework, which may not be sustainable in the long term.
Many other companies are aware of the importance of culture development but find it difficult to strike a balance between short-term and long-term thinking. They are only prepared to a limited extent to invest attention and resources in areas that do not make an immediate contribution to the (financial) success of the company.
The result: Culture development is being pursued half-heartedly and in a way that conserves resources.
Companies cannot change, only people can. Culture development can therefore only work if a critical mass of people sees challenges as an opportunity to develop and learn something new. In addition, they must be given the space and time to actually do this.
In some companies, the culture is characterized by a "fixed mindset": The belief is that people are only capable of learning and developing to a limited extent. In day-to-day business, challenges are avoided, and trial and error are outlawed as a waste of time; instead, employees are trained not to make mistakes. Quality is only achieved through structures, rules and stringent management.
The result: Culture and its development are not on the agenda.
In other companies, individual and collective learning and development processes repeatedly fall by the wayside in favor of disruptions in the here and now. They fail to do so or consider it excessive effort to align the systems, processes and tools of the employee journey with the new culture and offer people a framework in which they can grow individually and collectively.
The result: Culture development stagnates because important mechanisms that influence behavior are barely touched or not touched at all.
Companies that are geared towards long-term viability and consistently focus on the future, on the other hand, have a good chance of success. To adapt, they repeatedly initiate development processes - one of which usually focuses on the topic of "culture".
They see the steepness of their learning curve as one of their greatest assets and invest heavily in individual, collective and system-wide development. The majority of leaders and employees are prepared to leave their comfort zone - they see challenges as opportunities, learn together from mistakes and errors and grow from them - and the company provides sufficient space, time and other resources for this.
These companies see culture development as a collective learning process. To fuel this process, they bring people from different departments and management levels together and enrich their discussions so that they can critically examine the culture that is needed today and in the future. It is obvious that they cannot fully predict and control the results and their implementation or anchoring in the company, but this is not necessary: Top management sets the framework, relying as far as possible on the self-healing powers within the company and therefore on the common sense and skills of the management levels and employees futher down.
We at culture & company look forward to working with companies of all kinds! Working with the "culture champions" brings us particular pleasure and joy. At the same time, we are happy to convince the "doubters" that culture and its further development are important and support the "half-hearted" with our good practices in the consistent implementation of their culture development measures.
