Change

Chapter 6Cultural Change That Helps You Adapt

A fourth way that enterprises try to cope with a more rapidly changing world is by attempting to consciously mold their “cultures” to be less an anchor holding back change and more a force that fosters speed and adaptability.

Unlike strategic planning, digital transformation, and restructuring, which tend to become highly quantified exercises, culture is generally treated as “soft.” In a world where managerial processes dominate, and quantification has become more and more important and feasible, culture has been less often the center of intentional action for driving organizations into a prosperous future.

Nevertheless, culture lives on as an important issue because enough people intuitively believe statements like “Culture eats strategy for breakfast” (a comment often attributed to business guru Peter Drucker). That is, in terms of how powerful a force it is in driving action, culture might beat strategy by a lot. This same logic would probably lead to “Culture eats restructuring for a light afternoon snack.”

In the last decade, the volume of conversation about culture and its impact on performance seems to have risen. A number of incredibly successful technology companies have talked of their cultures as a differentiator both for attracting talent and for operational performance. When high-flier Netflix codified and made available a description of its norms and values in a PowerPoint deck, the slides went viral. One tech superstar ...