What is culture?
We all have an intuitive sense of what’s meant by an organisation’s culture. But what does “culture” actually mean? In this guest post, James Rutherford, HR consultant and friend of Broom & Moon, shares his definition of culture — and the questions to ask to really understand yours.
The word ‘culture’ gets thrown around a lot.
You probably hear at least daily references to ‘safety culture’, ‘risk culture’, ‘entrepreneurial’ and ‘toxic’ cultures.
You hear it referenced in relation to nations, governments, institutions, companies.
It’s cited as a defining feature of successful or failing sports teams, orchestras and other organisations. And it’s used to explain the success or failure of everything from childcare to corporate mergers.
So you’d think ‘culture’ would be deeply understood, researched and defined.
Sadly, no.
So, what is your organisation’s culture? How might you understand it better? And what can you do to have a positive impact your organisation’s culture (and hence its performance)?
I’ll be exploring the last of these questions in a future post. But, first, let’s start with a more fundamental question:
how do you define ‘culture’?
I ask this question a lot and plenty of people struggle to find an answer.
In the simplest terms, here’s a useful (maybe) starting point. Culture is:
“the way things are done here”
Sounds good?
It’s simple and makes intuitive sense. But by this definition, “culture” covers pretty much everything you might be able (and unable) to point a stick at. So it doesn’t help much if we want to change a culture.
Instead let’s get more specific (and, I think, more helpful).
When we think about culture, we are really talking about our interactions with the people that are in, or are representative of, an organisation.
So what if we defined culture as:
“the set of behaviours that members of an organisation consistently display over time”
Wordier, but still easy to get your head around. And thinking about your culture in this way allows you to bring more structure to diagnosing and changing it.
To quickly build an accurate picture of an organisation’s culture, ask these questions:
1. What are the organisation’s beliefs?
Most organisations have some form of vision or mission statement – or some set of stated goals.
But rhetoric doesn’t always match reality, so don’t take things on face value.
Get curious to understand:
how the organisation views its ‘market’
what it sees as its primary strengths
how those strengths differ from its competitors
how it defines its future
how it will execute on plans for the future
2. How are important decisions made?
Don’t just focus on the decision-making forums and processes that exist. Instead, think about:
what decisions are considered important?
who has the power to make them?
who influences those people?
what do they base their decisions on?
A common pitfall is assuming that the most senior people make the most important decisions. When we think about ‘big decisions’ – Capex, strategy, resourcing etc – that’s generally true. But these are often not the decisions that drive the overall success of the organisation.
Take a hospital, for example. Yes, the senior people make big decisions that impact the institution. But the real decision makers are the clinical teams that deliver health outcomes for the patients.
Understanding this difference is vital because what is important to the decision makers becomes important to the organisation. And what’s important drives the behaviour and interactions with an organisation’s members (i.e. its culture).
3. What behaviours are commonly displayed by the organisation’s members?
Every organisation has a self-policed set of behavioural norms. These will vary between specific individuals and teams, but there will always be some consistency between them.
Think about the last time you took on a new job and your working style, language and interactions changed as you assimilated to your new role and relationships.
Understanding what these consistent behaviours are – from the perspective of those within and outside the organisation – provides incredible insight on the culture and what drives it.
Look to understand which behaviours are recognised and which are not. Again, dig deeper than recognition programs where they exist. Listen, too, to the stories about successful people and how they achieve their success.
Each of these three areas overlap and influence the other. But together they provide a useful framework for understanding what drives the more visible behaviours and interactions that define your culture.
In a future post, I’ll explore how to take the understanding detailed above and translate that into positive cultural change.
