My Best Work (Culture Series, Part I)

~1500 words. 7 minute read.

In 2017 I did some of my best work. I felt it myself, based on the flow-state I was in for weeks and based on the quality of the output I created. But most importantly, this work involved the creation of a survey, and these were some of the comments I received in the free text field from the respondents:

“I could have spent 20 minutes on each question and written an explanatory paragraph to accompany each answer. Well thought-out and thought-provoking questions.”

“This was one of the most well-designed surveys I have taken in 20 years. Well done!”

“Clearly, from the quality of the questions, it’s obvious we are engaging in the right self-examination. Thank you!”

What had I done?
A little personal historical context may help here:

• 1980

  I am born in Luxembourg to German parents who are on assignment abroad.

• 1985

  Preschool at the Ecole Européenne in Luxembourg. My earliest socialization occurs with kids from England, France, Italy, Spain, etc. who don’t speak my language, and I don’t speak theirs.

• 1989

  Move to Germany, entering second grade of elementary school in my ‘home country’.
  (I would only spend 12 years of my life in Germany, which prompted my mom to once lovingly proclaim: “You don’t have a home country!”)

• 1997

  Relocation to Greece to attend High School at the German School in Thessaloniki. I know nothing about this country, its history (beyond the ancient republic and its philosophers), its language, or its people.

• 2002

  Undergraduate degree in Economics and Cultural Studies (Iberian culture concentration) at the University of Passau in Bavaria.

• 2005

  Move to Michigan to earn an MBA from Western Michigan University. I write a thesis on using Chaos Theory as a framework to managing change.

• 2013

  I begin work on a PhD, researching the topic of ‘Corporate Culture and Competitive Advantage’.

• 2015

  Working for American Express, I lead a project on culturally integrating an acquired German company into the American loyalty business. My culture workshops are hugely popular with German and American employees alike.

• 2016

  I give a speech at the Managing Conflict 4.0 conference at Pepperdine University, presenting a culture management model and case study.

• 2017

  Working at Charles Schwab, I run a sweeping culture project for one of its largest technology organizations, describing ways to create an organizational culture that optimally supports its strategic goals. It was this culture project that elicited the survey responses I quoted above.

The theme here is not just culture (which we will see is very hard to define and operationalize), but individualization, appreciation for diversity (its strengths, but also the conflict potential it bears), culture as a force, as a malleable resource, the recognition that there’s no culture-agnostic endeavor, and the thirst for it, once I had felt its awesome power.

Prof G (Scott Galloway) likes to say: “Life is so rich.”
Culture is one of the reasons for why it is.

I feel encouraged to share some of this work here, especially because I have continued it to this day.

We don’t manage culture. Culture manages us.

It begins in such a compelling way:
In a survey of over 40,000 (!) professionals from various industries, Partners in Leadership asked two simple questions:

1. What do you spend the majority of your time on - Strategy or Culture?
   The responses:

Time Spent

Then:

2. What has the most impact on your results?

Impact on Results

Huh?

It is an astounding example of cognitive dissonance. Why do leaders not spend more time directly managing culture, given its perceived (and real) impact on results?

The studies, surveys, and research I have conducted suggests that there are at least three answers:

1. Culture is not being measured.
   Culture is an intangible value. Its costs and benefits are hidden between the lines on balance sheets and financial reports. It doesn’t appear aggregated in a single number anywhere. Culture is a prominent victim of the adage: “What doesn’t get measured doesn’t get managed.”

2. Culture is experienced subconsciously.
   Oftentimes culture rules are not expressively stated. Most of us don’t notice a culture norm until it is violated. Culture belongs in the fast-thinking, System One part of our brain. It is associated with our conditioned instincts, intuition, and with feeling, more so than with thinking.

3. Culture management is difficult and requires skill and effort.
   Even when culture is recognized to be an important driver of results, it seems that there’s a lack of knowledge and practices with regards to how culture should be managed. The time it takes for results to manifest is a deterrent to culture management, especially in quarterly reporting cycles.

Culture…

• Provides continuity for the organization through turnover and reorganization.

• Establishes boundaries, ground rules, and communication norms.

• Influences expectations and priorities.

• Sets conditions for reward and punishment.

• Defines effective and ineffective performance.

• Influences organizational structure (and is influenced by it!).

• Acts as a catalyst to strategy (and undermines execution if not aligned).

The case for active culture management and for culture as a leadership tool is a compelling one, regardless if motivated by the risks of ignoring it, or by the benefits it can provide to organizational effectiveness.

I often hear statements like this one:
”The culture at my place of work is great!”
Or:
”What I like most about working here is our culture!”

I will explain why these are nonsensical (or at least vastly incomplete and un-reflected) statements - in the next part of this culture series. Stay tuned!