As such, culture can not only be a huge
competitive advantage but can drive
business forward at an accelerated rate.
FINDING YOUR CULTURE
Defining and redefining your culture can be
complex. To begin, determine what makes
you tick as an organization and look at
your corporate ideology—the combination
of your vision, purpose and values. Some
organizations have a weak or almost nonexistent ideology while others have a clearly
defined one. Ideology is the compass that
aligns people to a common goal—to provide
a directional point. Let’s explore each of the
three facets of ideology in greater detail:
1. Vision: To create culture, define your
overall vision. What do you want it to look
like? Feel like? Can you visualize how it will
impact your company? Vision can exist at
any level, be it companywide, departmentwide or individual-based.
2. Purpose: Once you pinpoint your vision,
ask yourself: What is its purpose? A lot of
organizations struggle with understanding
and creating purpose. After all, it has to be
something that connects with people on
a very emotional and personal level. Your
company mission may change, but your
purpose should not.
3. Core Values: Values are the bedrock of
your brand. They shape every decision you
make. Perhaps a core value of your brand
is transparency, maybe it’s innovation. But
if you are not willing to stand up for one of
these values, it’s not a true core value. Once
you find your values, write them down and
define each, you’ll be one step closer to
creating a thriving culture.
SO WHAT GOES WRONG?
If the inherent benefits of a strong
culture are well-understood—and there
are documented frameworks for finding
corporate culture—then why do companies
still struggle to create one? For starters, all
too often, businesses forget that they need
to start small to affect change. Too many
organizations try to make major sweeping
changes to move culture, but changes
need to be organic.
“Think of the United States of America,
which has an overarching culture based
on concepts of opportunity, freedom and
liberty,” Hebert suggests. “Each region within
the U.S. has its own subculture and within
those regions there are a series of additional
subcultures. Whether these subcultures
are based on a particular city, subdivision,
ethnic group or even popular sports team,
they work if they align and connect back to
highest level, overarching defining culture.”
Additionally, it’s often forgotten that culture
is highly invisible. In 1976, Edward T. Hall,
an American anthropologist, developed the
iceberg analogy of culture.