Leading at a Distance

CHAPTER 10The Culture Conundrum: Building and Sustaining Culture Virtually

In our leadership advisory work, culture comes up constantly – as it did in our interviews for this book. Perhaps not surprisingly, our survey findings show that only 20% of respondents felt that the virtual shift has had a positive impact on company culture, 43% thought that it has had a negative impact, and 38% were neutral. Given the importance of culture, many leaders mentioned culture as a top priority in this virtual shift.

Peter Drucker famously said, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” While this quote is so well known it can be considered conventional wisdom, there is actually some dispute¹ as to whether Drucker actually said this. The fact is that there are no actual citations to this in his extensive writing. We can assure you here, however, that he did say it! At least he said it to Jim, when Jim interviewed him for his 1998 book, Lessons from the Top. Beyond that morsel of business trivia, the important point is that culture is both important and has a massive influence on organizational and individual performance.

Despite the growing appreciation for the importance of culture, few executives can describe what drives their organization's culture or whether their culture supports or works against the strategic priorities of the business. Part of the difficulty is the lack of a shared ...