5 Reasons Why Intentional Culture Matters

by Brian Becker

I’m beginning a new series of posts about culture. Why? Because the more experiences I have as a consultant and executive coach, I realize that everything is affected by culture.

Peter Drucker, organizational guru for over 30 years was right when he said, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” It doesn’t matter how smart you are, how on-target your goals are or how much you want to succeed. If the culture is weak or dysfunctional, it will negatively affect everything!

Culture is the intangible made up by myriad forces that are demonstrated and guarded by the top leadership (or at least it should be). It is more than environment, physical space, mission statement, quality of product, services or the education you deliver.

Culture is created in the tension between what the leadership stands for (or creates) and what it allows. A healthy culture never occurs by accident. If you’re not intentioned about the culture, you will have a culture, whether you like it or not, that’s there by accident, or worse yet by neglect.

Organizations have a “force field” that is uniquely designed to produce the results or culture that actually exists. In any organization (religious, for profit, nonprofit) their beliefs, values, actions, attitudes, systems, levels of accountability, etc. have created the culture that’s actually quite predictable.

Five top-of-the-mind take-aways on culture:

1. Your organization’s culture is shaped by the leaders…by intention or neglect…and by what is expected and what is allowed.
2. Every day, each employee, whether they’re aware of it or not,  either puts “wind in the sails” or “blows against the sails.”
3. All organizations have a culture, but individuals, the people create it.
4. Your attitudes/perspective are not determined by the organization, but are individual choices.
5. Every situation can improve…if/when people have honest conversations about it.

Culture shifts take time and energy. Don’t expect it to be easy. Don’t expect everyone to embrace the change. Actually, you can anticipate that in most situations, some will try to sabotage your best efforts to improve the culture. I know that sounds crazy. Why would someone intentionally harm the organization? We’ll get more into that in future blog posts.

Do all you can to improve and promote a stronger organizational culture, as if the very life of your organization depends on it...because it does!

+

This blog shares perspectives on how you have the ability to create new story endings that are meaningful, powerful and filled with hope. I facilitate culture changing processes that help organizations achieve greater impact. Also, I provide leadership coaching to help executives and aspiring leaders become the fullest expression of who they’re intended to be.

If you're looking for coaching or consulting services, contact me - brian@leadersedge.me

#leadership #vision #culture www.leadersedge.me