CHAPTER ONE:
CHAPTER TWO:
DEFINING“ COMPANY CULTURE”
IDENTIFYING THE CHARACTERS
Creating a culture, in many respects, is similar to storytelling. It’ s a complex process of weaving“ words” that speak of the company’ s values. Like most stories, it involves a team of protagonists( people who, at every cost, would champion the culture defined within an organization) and, yes, an occasional encounter with antagonists( people whose unproductive actions help define and enforce a culture). Every company in the process of creating a strong company culture goes through a creative journey, often broken into chapters of identifying goals, defining strategies, assessing performance, among others.
In the end, what makes a story a bestseller is not the fancy slogan or empty promises, but the“ passion”— that strong, internal strength of a team or company to write its own story of unique company culture and, if needed, edit out people, actions, goals that no longer fit in the company’ s creative journey.
CHAPTER ONE:
In today’ s world where brands proliferate like mushrooms overnight, the ones that best thrive in a competitive environment are those who weave company culture into their brand DNA. But what is company culture? What does it take to build a distinct one?
Zappos Insight Product Manager Robert Richman defines a strong company culture as“ one in which people’ s words and actions are in alignment with the company’ s values.” He says, companies with strong cultures always honor their values, and recommit to them— whether in times of success or not.
“ Values go beyond people, goals and trends because they create a consistent experience for both employees and customers. And it’ s the experience that everyone is buying, whether they pay with their money( customers) or their time( employees).”
Working with Zappos, recognized worldwide for its culture of service, Richman knows first-hand the challenges of introducing and enforcing a company culture. He recalls that it took Zappos about a year to undergo a deep core values process, taking in everyone’ s input( but ultimately the leadership decides).“ Our CEO used to meet with everyone we hired to make sure there was a culture fit, but developing the core values and then a hiring process built on them have been key to our strong culture,” he recounts.
To him, it takes all three: Clarity, commitment and alignment in order to build a strong culture.“ Clarity is required to know your core values. Commitment is sticking to them no matter what the situation, and alignment is making sure that every project, program, and communication completely embodies those core values,” Richman explains.
CHAPTER TWO:
DEFINING“ COMPANY CULTURE”
IDENTIFYING THE CHARACTERS
A big component of your“ culture” story are the characters, composed of leaders and employees, who uphold your culture in every way they speak, think and operate at work.
“ One of the most prevalent employee complaints is they don’ t know what is expected of them,” Richman says.“ People
August 2011 ■ PULSE 41