culture; the behaviors and characteristics of a particular group of people, the values, typical practices, and goals of a business or other organization, especially a large corporation.
Peter Drucker, known as the father of modern management, is famously quoted as saying, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast”. I could kiss him!
The culture of your organization or functional team will always determine success regardless of how effective your strategy is, how great your technology is, the health of your finances or the eloquence of your market plan. Culture is the linchpin that creates the water you swim in or the air you breathe as an organization.
So how do we intentionally create culture? Core Values.
Core values are a set of behaviors that align us and guard the ethos of the organization or team. After all, if we’re tolerant of everything, we will stand for nothing. Core values are a few – only two or three – behavioral character traits that are core or inherent to the org. They are not aspirational, the bare minimum or accidental. They are intention and core to who the organization is and provide employees clear expectations about how to behave. A clear and simple, memorable and repeatable set of core values also is the greatest tool in any leaders toolbelt when it comes to having difficult conversations with employees. Core values front load every hard conversation.
The impact of creating culture through core values goes beyond employee engagement and success. The values of an organization will help to draw the right customers, clients or people who want to do business with you or be part of your mission.
Every organization has a set of values. The question is, are they serving the purpose of building culture in a transformative way? Does everyone in the organization know the values? Are they evaluated by the way they embody the values within the organization? Or are they simply a long list of platitudes posted in the lunchroom? If your core values aren’t helping to create culture within your organization, then they might need a facelift or a little surgery. We’d love to help!