CULTURE IS THE CAKE, EVERYTHING ELSE IS ICING

By culture - I mean the substance of relationships. The codified behaviours and everyday decisions.

By "everything else" - I mean the glitzy things we often 𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘦 for culture. Gimmicks, apps, surprise campaigns, shiny initiatives, etc.

If you've been reading here a while, it may be obvious that I'm a bit of a purist and traditionalist when it comes to culture.  But what is also obvious, is that a cake without icing is about as enticing as a trip to the dentist.

So what to do? Well, the trick is in the order, the layering, the recipe! Because although I have seen many organisations attempt it - you absolutely cannot "decorate" your way to a thriving culture.

It can't be installed.  You can’t incentivise it into existence.

Culture is baked in by the raw ingredients. And for me those ingredients are: 

• Leadership role-modelling.

• Authentic values that are actually lived.

• Well-considered policies.

• Strategic communication, repeated consistently over time.

And here is where you will likely find me investing time, energy and resources. 

THAT TIME I ALMOST REJECTED THE ICING

Picture the scene: a devoted Head of People + a pioneering Fin-Tech business + a shared commitment to create the kind of cake (aka culture) where people never want to leave.  The cake in question was "baked" by the outrageously talented and steadfast team at Wonga. Where organisational culture is exceptionally strong and proudly embodied. 

Starting with a strong foundation of Values, which were 

- Crafted in unwavering alignment with the existing tone and style of leadership. - Stress-tested for authenticity at all levels of the business 

- Embedded consistently & repeatedly, over-time.

As a result, the essence of this company culture is deeply resonant with the values.  And the values themselves are frequently referred to in meetings, presentations etc and fully embodied by the team. 

So, when one of the bi-annual engagement surveys revealed that teams were feeling under-appreciated - each division workshopped solutions that would be meaningful, impactul and easy to implement. Departments took appropriate responsibility for their micro-level, and senior leadership did the same for the macro-level. 

Appreciation is somewhat of a nebulous concept to track, but with the multi-tiered approach, the metrics soon shifted. A full team effort, with a satisfactory outcome. As always any meaningful change that was desired was led and role-modeled firstly and sincerely by the CEO and senior leaders. 

Fast forward some time later you can imagine my apprehension when along comes Zuzo with their new app. I was sceptical, resistant and strong in my conviction that Wonga didn't need it. We had done the hard work of building a culture of appreciation from the ground up and in my mind "shiny add-on's do not a culture make"! But there was buy-in from other parts of the business. I was a woman-alone on my righteous island, and Zuzo made a compelling case. 

So with that, we began the journey of layering some cream-cheese frosting onto the cake... And, surprise surprise! The combo was a match made in heaven.  Activating Zuzo was like adding gasoline to a flame that had already been lit.  But our success and synergy was not a forgone conclusion... even a match made in heaven needs some help to succeed. 

A GOOD RECIPE

Now, I am not anti-tech, but I am anti-shortcuts. So with all said, here is my recipe for a pretty decent culture...

1. Culture is the soul of a business. Take the time to excavate what already exists. 

Not what you want it to be. Not what is trending in thought leadership articles. Not what you've inherited from a parent company. No the words on the wall, which are the same 4 words on 60% of the walls globally. Not the aspiration that no-body quite relates to and so quietly rejects. 

No. I'm talking about the actual culture. 

This takes time because the themes and patterns which are consistent across all levels of business take time to unearth. 

But at this phase going slow IS going fast. 

Invest in surveys, conversations, workshops....  Invest in iterations of refinement until the essence is clear.  Let leadership tiers steer, but definitely take the whole company along for the journey.  You want the end result to be something that everyone had a hand in shaping, and everyone feels is authentic and true. This is possible and worth the effort.

TOP TIP: Embed the question "What do you most admire about your leader?" into the process. Leadership character traits (especially senior leadership tier) heavily influence culture, as people quite literally look 'up' for the example that is being set. Good traits will be admired and emulated from the highest level all the way through. You might be surprised how much 'soul' is revealed with this 1 question alone. 

2. Codify & Embed the secret sauce 

This is the fun part and is made immeasurably quicker and easier if due time and care is given in phase 1. 

3. Remember that humans are emotional and irrational 

If behaviour change was easy, everyone would be up at 5am and at peak fitness and health. But this is not the case. So when the desire is to change aspects of culture, remember it will take longer if you rely on logic and process alone, and will move much faster if you work WITH the fact that full spectrum emotions will show up. Anticipate and plan for fear, resistance, denial, excitement, boredom, fatigue, inspiration motivation. The whole gambit. 

4. Leadership buy-in is essential. 

If you don't have it, don't do it. 

5. Icing

When you have buy-in, and you undersand human emotions and needs; then you are perfectly poised to incorporate elements which can supercharge your strategic intent. Make sure you pick the right partners. Real partners. Make sure they are as committed to the end result as you are, and stay for the journey of ups and downs. Then the cake really can be twice as nice. 

Not anti-tech, just anti-shortcuts. 

You really can have your cake and eat it too!

Image credit: https://unsplash.com/@americanheritagechocolate

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