Dan Gregory @DanGregoryCo
In an age where the people who work for us and along side us and the customers, clients and communities that engage with us are seeking greater meaning in their interactions, as well as evaluating our sense of purpose and the meaning we seek beyond monetary gain, culture has become one of the defining factors of success in terms of talent and customer attraction and retention.
However, as much as purpose is one of the defining factors of culture and the two are inevitably linked, they are not synonymous.
Purpose is a part of culture, but culture is better thought of as an identity that is partially informed by purpose as well as other critical factors.
In other words, what sits beneath our Why, What and How (Simon Sinek’s Golden Circle), is our sense of WHO. Which means cultural identity is not just what we aspire to achieve, but also who we are being and becoming in the process
All of us, in fact, have multiple identities. There is the role we play in our families, at work, as a nation or as a community group. These different identities work best when aligned with our personal identities although some will at times have primacy over others.
So, in the context of organisation culture, what are the elements we need to consider in addition to purpose and how do we create “Cultures of the willing?”
There are multiple levels of identity, but for simplicity and utility, let’s examine two fundamentals - that of the unconscious and consicous factors.
1. Identity (Unconscious)
Unconscious identity is influenced by:
Environment - I love the concept that Fish can’t see water that was so beautifully articulated in the book of the same name by Kai Ewerlöf Hammerich and Richard D. Lewis. This phenomenon is why many of us cannot see unconscious bias or privilege - especially when it works in our favour. This also explains the unconscious nature of environment in the forming of cultural norms. What might seem completely usual in one cultural environment might seem outrageous in another. This experience is echoed in behavioural research that has demonstrated how increases or decreases in skills, like creativity and emotional intelligence, can be influenced by the different environmental conditions participants find themselves in. These environmental factors might be geographic, economic, climatic or one of many other environmental factors.
Experience - In addition to the environments we inhabit, work in and were raised in, we also need to consider the experiences we have collected along the way. This is the reason why generational distinctions are often useful, as Baby Boomers, Gen X, Y & Z may all occupy a common physical, geographic or organisational environment, though they are perhaps defined more deeply by different collective experiences. These experiences may cause us to feel different emotions, or make different predictions, to borrow a term from neuroscientist Lisa Feldman, and these predictions or guesses inform our cultural context in an unconscious, and occasionally conscious, way. For example, those who have grown up as social media natives have experienced very different formative years and social accountability to their predecessors.
Personality - If you’ve been working in the corporate world for the past few decades, you’ve no doubt participated in some form of personality profiling - DISC, Myers Briggs, MMPI or something of the like. These systems can be useful for assessing our own personalities and tendencies, but where we at The Impossible Institute disagree and are at odds with them is that they are often presented as a fait accompli. In other words, if you’re a D, you will always be a D! If you tested as an INTJ, well that’s just who you are and you will not change. We prefer to think of personality profiling as an examination of your Default Thinking Frames™. In other words, it’s not who you are, it is simply the filter or filters you rely on most often, particularly under duress. Again, these default filters drive our identity at a largely unconscious level.
2. Identity (Conscious)
Moving up from the unconscious to the cognizant, conscious identity is a function of:
Abilities - Each of the unconscious determinants of identity play a role in defining our abilities, strengths and weaknesses. These abilities we share are typically thought of in a binary way, that is, strengths are good, weaknesses are bad. As a result, these abilities tend to inform our values and our focus. Hunter/gatherer communities typically value physical abilities as very important whereas developed economies tend to value intellect more highly. These leads us rather naturally to:
Values - Values, rather than being the output of logical evaluation, are more a function of what we deem to be important. This importance is influenced by the unconscious elements of identity as well as how we are rewarded, what we are praised for, and what we are biased to appreciate in ourselves and others based on our abilities. Even such things as the sanctity of human life, which many of us believe to be an inalienable and an unquestionable moral imperative, has been interpreted very differently by various cultures throughout history and with wildly differering cultural outcomes.
Meaning - Rather than something that is found or is an absolute, meaning is very much something we create. The proof of this is the fact that a single, clearly understood, incident can be interpreted in many different ways. A setback, for instance, might be seen as failure in one context or as a necessary albeit minor course correction in another.
So, if we’re thinking of culture as an shared identity that we consciously and unconsciously buy into or subscribe to, what other facets of culture should be considered? Let’s take a look at the Five “B’s” of culture:
Bearing
Bearing is very much informed by our purpose, our WHY, our sense of direction. This is often articulated as our mission and vision. It sets up tangible goals and measures of inclusion, cohesion and success. This is where the commercial world typically focuses much of its leadership strategy.
Beliefs
Beliefs, which are often framed as values, might also be thought of as the moral context of a culture. How good and bad are defined and enforced, as well as what might be considered the non-negotiables or underlying code and ideology (or IDology - where identity and beliefs intersect).
Behaviour
Exemplar behaviours describe how these values manifest as well as what our culture defining capabilities are. For example, Nordstrom builds a customer-centric culture by sharing stories that exemplify what outstanding customer service looks like. One of the stories they tell is of a customer service clerk who, while selling a business shirt to a young man on the way to a job interview, offered to iron it for him so he’d look sharp for his prospective employees. This is beliefs and values brought to life as behaviour.
Belonging
Belonging is linked to behaviour and informs how we demonstrate membership of a particular culture. What are the totems, rituals, visual and verbal mnemonics as well as the privileges of membership. Essentially, it’s how we recognise and establish connection with other members of “our tribe.”
Background
All of these factors must also be viewed in light of the environment and context in which our culture is emerging. Culture does not manifest in a vacuum, nor is it immune to outside influences, threats and incursions. As our cultures are defined by the historic environments and experiences that have created them, they are likewise informed by the changes that our environments are experiencing in the current moment.
Ultimately, culture is often a complicated and interconnected identity that adds up to more than just our purpose and vision. So, if we want to bring our WHY into existence, it’s worth considering culture in all of its rich and varied complexity.