Fostering Innovation

11Culture Eats Eggs and Strategy Eats Bacon, or Something to that Effect

For a long time, I thought culture was some flowery BS spewed by HR types. After all, we were engineers; we did real work. The truth is, I really didn't understand what culture meant.

Culture describes the “norms” of a group. A strong culture can also be an unhealthy culture. See Figure 11.1 to perform a culture evaluation for both your company and your IT department, separately.

Figure 11.1 Culture Evaluation Matrix

If there is a weak, unhealthy culture (bottom left), you will have high turnover, low productivity, and no discretionary effort. New hires will be discouraged from day one, and top talent will leave even for equal or lower pay. The only way to stay staffed is to overpay to the market. Paying above industry rates for disengaged employees is a recipe for failure. The term golden handcuffs is often associated with this scenario. Salaried professionals will behave like hourly workers, starting and stopping according to the clock, not the status of the work. If you have a team of people who always leave the office precisely at 5:00 p.m., you have an unhealthy culture.

Fortunately, I've never been to prison. However, I think of prison when describing a strong, unhealthy culture (bottom right). A high school cafeteria is another one. These are not the places where unique ideas shine through. How ...