The Mind of the Leader

10

Understand Your Organization

Peter Drucker famously claimed, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” And it’s true. Cultures shape organizations in a way similar to how thoughts shape our behaviors. Cultures aren’t visible, but they’re powerful. If we as leaders want to guide our organizations toward greater success, we need to understand culture and how to influence it.

Culture, as elusive as it may seem, is stronger than the bricks of any company’s headquarters. Culture is created, maintained, and expressed by the many minds making up any organization. You can tear down an office and build a new one in a month. But you can’t change a culture that quickly. You can design an office to be just the way you like it, but you can’t design a culture ...