Culture development
Company culture - the phenomenon
Culture is, the same as a company, to deal with 'something'. This 'something' could be mistakes, decisions, ressources, ideas and innovation, processes or clients and much much more. Small diversions from the regulations of a process are heavily sanctioned in one company for example, and explicitly encouraged in another company, because the person acted in the interest of the project.
Culture is relevant to performance and results
Culture is performance relevant and can influence results positively or negatively. A strong avoidance of mistakes for example that becomes apparent in an extreme orientation to detail in decision-making, can cost time and money.
The unconscious of an organization
A company culture is more than the sum of the behaviors of its individuals. An organization forms patters just as it does people, based on unconscious views and influencing the behavior of its employees. In a mistake-avoiding culture, people will hide their mistakes. Such a way to deal with mistakes will lead to very careful and deliberate decision-making, but may also lead to decisions being made and actions being taken just for the sake of them. The view in this example is "If you make a mistake you will be let go." These views in an organization need to be changed if the company wants to and has to sustainably change its culture.
Culture - a necessary ingredient for success
Peter Drucker once said "Culture eats strategy for breakfast". The collective behavior in organizations must to involve strategy and structure - to avoid tough change processes, resistance and high costs. The people of an organization are the carriers of change and therefore also its culture, in all its different facets - therefore personality development and culture development are two dimensions that strengthen and foster each other. If the culture does not result in an organization achieving what it needs to achieve, then success and the well-being of the employees, and ultimately also the attractiveness as an employer will suffer. Transformation of culture can contribute signficantly to future success , to the well-being of the people and also the organization itself.
One size does not fit all
Management methods come and go. The fact that these methods always seem "to be the perfect solution", on a strategic, structural or cultural level, never really convinced us fully. We are of the opinion that people organizations are highly individual organisms. This means that the existence of one perfect organizational culture is simply impossible . "One size fits all" already does not work within a company. You cannot expect to establish the same way of dealing with mistakes in credit accounting as in marketing, where new methods are experimented with to reposition a brand in fast-changing market.
Culture is selectively modifiable - and it is a process
To modify culture in a structured manner, it is necessary to have a clear goal and be aware what the current culture is. Similar to the development of people, the development of culture does not run digitally. Habits do not change in the space of a day. There is a need for collective awareness in which direction behavior should change and how it should develop strategically and structurally. Constructive and productive is an iterating process in which people, teams and organizations edge closer to the intended goal in small steps. This process must happen benevolantly and consciously in our view, in order to steer the energies in a constructive and productive direction, that supports the necessary flexibility and adaptation. Culture development is therefore not a sprint, but a marathon.
We are happy to advise, how you can effectively develop the culture of your company in a structured manner and with limited effort.
