Corporate Culture: It’s a 'Feeling'

Corporate Culture: It’s a 'Feeling'

Bruce Garrod - July 25, 2018

Following 20 years at a large Canadian telecommunications firm, Bruce established the project management consulting firm Solutions Management Inc (SMI). Since 1999, he has provided contract project/program management services, been a source for project management support personnel and created/delivered courses to over 7,000 participants in Canada, the United States and England.[pic 1]

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Topics: Change Management, Ethics and Organizational Culture

It doesn’t take a lot of research on business social media sites to find endless references regarding how to develop, maintain or change corporate culture. There are countless companies—ranging from large international consulting firms to boutique companies—that will research, diagnose, analyze, report and recommend action plans that will take a company from where it is to where it needs to be. Executive recruiting companies thrive on finding senior leaders who have a reputation of implementing organizational change.

All of these firms provide a necessary service, yet more than 35 years of business experience has shown me that culture is both difficult to define and even more challenging to change. There are theories, including views posted on this website, related to this month’s theme that organizational culture shouldn’t be a management priority. I respectfully disagree.

Corporate culture defined
Let’s start with trying to define organizational culture. I found an interesting article in the November 2017 Forbes Magazine that defined it as “the beliefs and behaviors that permeate your organization.” I like it! How can we say business leaders shouldn’t focus on the very soul of a company? In my opinion, the way business is conducted is what differentiates one company from another.

In today’s business world of easily accessible information, most companies in a competitive market price their products very similarly. A purchaser can conduct simple research and easily find prices for commodity products. Given the quality control within the supply chain, often choosing Vendor A versus Vendor B is a coin toss.

So what differentiates one company from the other? The “feel”—that intangible sixth sense that can be neither quantified nor accurately measured. Whether it’s a large corporate purchasing decision (such as what carrier will be used to provide nation-wide mobile services) or a smaller investment (like acquiring a single vehicle), the personal interaction with the selling company will have a significant effect on the decision. The approach, communication style, honesty, empathy and professionalism of the individuals involved in the process is what will most significantly influence the purchasing decision.

Is this not “the culture” of a company? Should this not be a senior management priority?

The corporate culture sandwich 
The top slice of the cultural sandwich is senior management. Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Group, is known for his passion for excellent customer service. After acquiring an existing company or while launching a new service, he will not permit the Virgin brand to be applied until rigid service standards are confirmed. While corporate profitability is a necessary priority, the Virgin senior management team understands revenue will follow when the public recognizes the service lives up to the standards Virgin continuously establishes.

The bottom slice of the cultural sandwich is the front-line team. These are the people who meet with clients or end users on a day-to-day basis. They may be sales and marketing employees that facilitate new business, or they may be operations-focused team members who deal with the day-to-day activities that keep the business flowing. They may also be the project management resources who act as a bridge to deliver a product/service that has been sold or internally improved.

This group of professionals understand that their role is to maintain a consistent approach of honesty, empathy and professionalism. Every member of the team knows how they contribute and how they help build the customers “feeling” of affirmation they made the right decision.

The company culture, therefore, is the result of a top-down commitment to key corporate priorities combined with a bottom-up desire of a team inspired to delivery excellence.

So now what?
It can be argued a new or small business can gain quick wins toward establishing or changing a culture. In contrast, organizations that have been in business for many years (and/or have a large employee base) face a bigger challenge. While not definitive, here are five basic steps to contribute to a cultural evolution:

1. Recognize the need for change. Often the most difficult step, a company or department needs to stay connected with whom they serve. Trends change and needs of customers (and even end users) endlessly evolve. Redirecting the cultural direction over an extended time (think of steering a large ship) is much more likely to be successful than realizing late in the game that there is a problem.
2. Lead by example. Strategic success is not measured in quarterly results. To evolve, commitment needs to be demonstrated by long-term and ongoing, consistent messaging.
3. Communicate, communicate, communicate. Throughout the organization, two-way communication needs to be encouraged. All levels must be asked to provide suggestions on how to contribute to change. Who better to know what changes would help than front-line team members?
4. Celebrate small victories. Don’t wait until year-end arrives to recognize successful change. As tangible (or even intangible) change is noticed, perhaps via feedback from users/customers, recognize how the improvement happened. Good news spreads.
5. If you can’t change the people, change the people. Change is difficult. Employee turnover is expensive. Every effort should be made to support individuals who are part of the evolving culture. There are times, however, when specific individuals are unable to be part of the new culture. Other opportunities should be sought for those who struggle.

What is a project manager to do?
The age-old challenge of being a project manager is having all the responsibility and none of the authority. We rely on matrix team members to help build a plan and then deliver according to commitments. During a time of cultural change, we are the conduit to ensure senior management expectations are fulfilled by committed team members. A significant part of our role is to maintain enthusiasm. This means we understand and consistently communicate the executive mandate. We walk the talk and recognize/celebrate incremental achievements. We draw attention to organizational roadblocks and insist on support to remove impediments to success.

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