Friday, August 27, 2021

Innovativecultureanalog

Culture is deeper; culture is powerful. the right culture would be the one which is an "enabler" rather than an "inhibitor" to achievement of an organization’s vision.

Culture is a collective mindset, attitude, behaviors and action in a company. Hence, every person in the organization has a fair share of contribution to the business culture, either in the positive or negative way. Culture is changeable, and the speed of culture change may also be expedited as the world becomes more hyper-connected and interdependent.

Analogously, culture is to the foundation of a building: You can architect and construct the best building in the world, but doing so on a shaky foundation is a waste of time, and risky. Good cultures can lift an average strategy; but an ineffective culture can easily screw up a good strategy. You cannot consider culture as one element of the strategy execution unless you can identify the dominant cultures, subcultures, and the layers of those cultures. A lot of its culture is in a state of flux and can transform to suit a new chosen strategy. Just like you can remodel the building, but it’s difficult to make the foundation more solid. In practice, changing the culture to fit the strategy is tough because culture changes both slowly and reluctantly.

The objective culture assessment is hard because culture is too complex and many assessors overly focus on the underlying assumptions. One part of the assessment is to get employees to identify what the ideal culture would look like and the instrument captures the current culture. Technically, the culture analysis tools break down all cultures into constructive, passive-aggressive and passive defensive and assign behaviors to each of these categories. Let staff understand the different culture patterns, so they can change their collective mindset and behaviors. The goal is to ensure the organization can cultivate a culture that reveals the organizational value, aligned with the strategy and facilitates long term business success. Senior leadership is the crucial culture influencer. Trust for transparent performance is only possible if culture is nurtured formally or informally, by the leaders at the top who support an open and trusting work environment and enforce consistency throughout the organization.

Culture is like the iceberg with both visible and invisible parts, metaphorically speaking:
Culture influence is like the water, permeating in the organization and impact on how people do things there. Culture itself is like the solid-state of water - the iceberg metaphor describes the layers of culture, the visible elements, such as attitude or behaviors; the underlying mindsets, values and beliefs, expectations and assumptions, often being under the surface. The execution and conviction of strategy strongly rely on culture. It’s nearly impossible to change the culture without bringing those underlying pieces of culture elements to the surface, articulating them and assessing whether they are still the right ones for the current environment.

Water needs to be clear and transparent. There are stereotyping and elements of ethnocentric culture as well as there is also subculture. Culture visibility is really important for teams as every member is always aware of how the whole process is going on, what business culture encourages them to do, and what results have already been achieved. With comprehensive culture understanding, the senior leadership team can set effective policies, procedures, rewards, and retributions that shape a more advanced mindset and drive desired behavior and it is the employee attitude and behavior that expresses “culture.” The spirit comes from the top, the culture will only be as strong as the mindset and behaviors of the senior leaders and the way they use these to demonstrate their commitment to the values and vision on a daily basis.

Culture is the glue to integrate business relationships or culture is the "fabric" of an organization and habits/behaviors/practices being woven into it: Anthropology provides an expanded lens for business leaders to understand people and culture differences. Company culture is closely aligned to what the company believes in, along with the business practices and expectations associated with these beliefs. A strong leader can influence or enhance the culture. A manager is not a great leader if he or she is completely influenced by the existing culture; as they do not have the ability to evolve it because their vision is blurred and their mindset needs to be updated.

Culture of high-performance, culture of learning or culture of creativity are the most desired culture models; creative culture is usually outward-looking rather than insular, people are more willing to accept a degree of risks and experimentation, etc. Culture development isn't built in a day; it is an evolutionary journey and takes innovative leadership and long-term strategy. Culture-the collective values/beliefs/habits/mindset of the organization has to act as enablers to make the business transformation journey easier, faster and more successful.

Culture is deeper; culture is powerful. the right culture would be the one which is an "enabler" rather than an "inhibitor" to achievement of an organization’s vision. Every organization should remember that they are a part of society; corporate culture and societal culture mutually reinforce each other. If a societal culture is open and inclusive, the organizations within it would considerately be more open than competitors operated within other societies. When a leading organization’s culture is more innovative and open than its community or region in which it locates, it can make a positive influence on its ecosystem and the surrounding environment. Thus, Great companies spend significant energy on building and sustaining a great culture, as culture is their brand and footprint.