Chief Vision Officer and Founder of Keystone Group International.
How do I incorporate culture into our broader strategic initiatives?
I get this question a lot. And the answer is always, it depends. It depends on the quality of your strategic planning process, on the focus of your strategic initiatives and on the current state of your culture.
For many organizations, culture is not something that needs its own strategic initiatives and goals. It’s something to consider and incorporate into all of your strategic initiatives and goals.
For example, if you have a goal to make an acquisition in the coming year, you should build cultural considerations and actions you need to take into the goal itself. If you have a leadership development program you want to launch, you should ensure that it’s aligned with your cultural vision as part of the development of that program.
Setting a strategic initiative to “improve culture” will almost always fail. It’s too nebulous and doesn’t provide clear actions that will drive the improvement you are looking for.
I heard an analogy recently around talent in your organization related to a football team. Your most critical positions are the quarterbacks, and many people assume the next most valuable positions are running backs, wide receivers and other positions that get a lot of attention.
But the second most important position on a football team is the left tackle. The left tackle (or right tackle for a left-handed QB) is what protects your top player. It’s the position that makes sure you can continue to execute by keeping your QB safe.
That’s what culture is to all your strategic initiatives: It’s the left tackle. It’s there to protect your big strategic investments or moves you want to make. It’s there to ensure that your strategic growth is possible, through your people. It’s not there for the flashy plays or the risky calls. It’s the strong and steady backbone of your strategic offense.
Here are a few indications your culture is playing the right position in your company.
1. Your actions match your words. Culture is how you think, act and interact in every moment of every day, both internally and with your external stakeholders. Slow down and pay attention to how people are acting with each other, how leaders are leading and what tone your company communications have. All of these are your culture in action. What message is it sending?
2. Collaboration is rampant in your organization. In strong cultures, the level of collaboration is typically off the charts. Teams work well together; divisions defend each other and share ideas and innovations with each other. Support services truly get their business partners and proactively find ways to make them more successful.
3. Culture is part of your decision-making process. When you are driving a significant change or have to make a decision that might impact people’s daily work, do you stop to consider the cultural impacts before making a decision? Oftentimes as leaders, we are moving so fast from one thing to the next that we fail to stop and consider the cultural impacts of our decisions and can inadvertently create negative cultural impacts.
4. Your communication approach considers cultural impacts. Business is full of risks that we have to manage daily as leaders. But, often, we don’t evaluate the risks of our communication, how it will be interpreted and the cultural impacts it could have. By taking the time to really assess your messaging, how it will be perceived and any feelings or fears that it could trigger, you are incorporating the cultural impacts of the communication. It doesn’t mean that you don’t share bad news, it just means that you are intentional about the words you choose to use when you are communicating with your team to avoid unnecessary cultural impacts.
Culture should be seen as a mindset that is built into everything you do, not an event that you plan for. When you’re intentional about culture in your business decisions and communications, you create an environment where culture can grow stronger, even in difficult times.
It’s not a perfect game where every pass and every play will succeed, but if you put effort into making your culture an important part of your team, your “left tackle,” then you are guaranteed to have a positive impact over time.
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