Amp It Up

7Build a Strong Culture

Culture Matters More than You Think

Few words invoke more variety of meaning than culture. What does it mean in the context of a business organization? For our purposes, it loosely defines the dominant and persistent patterns of behaviors, beliefs, norms, and values of a workplace community. Culture describes how people come together as a group on a day‐to‐day basis. Is yours respectful, fluid, engaging, constructive, demanding, urgent, creative? Or is it dragging, political, CYA, risk avoiding, and confrontational? Workplaces are capable of all of those and many more.

Culture matters more than you think, and it is not optional. A strong culture can greatly help organizations and become an enduring source of competitive advantage. But a weak culture can easily destroy organizations from within.

An important question here is to what aim do you direct your culture. All platitudes and high‐minded principles aside, the culture needs to serve the mission of the enterprise. Sounds obvious? It isn’t. Most enterprises aim for making employees feel good, secure, and safe in their roles. They are aiming for strong net promoter scores (NPS) on their employee surveys. Management is angling for kudos for their virtuous leadership style. While there is nothing wrong with good intentions, we need to align the culture with the mission.

High‐growth enterprises are not easy places to live. The pressure is relentless. Performance is aggressively managed. There is no let ...