Culture
Culture as Purpose is always present regardless if we are aware or not to it.
It is the collection of attitudes and behaviors characteristics of a social group. Think about your family, friends, school, church, work… They are all cultures that have an intangible component that often makes it difficult to articulate it.
Keith Cunningham, at the Tony Robbins Business Mastery, offered this clever model that provides a clear integrated perspective on how a value is created in business. As well as, it shows the path to setting and implementing strategy.
Many times leaders in business have an easier time defining the Benefit and Process Value they offer; while they may struggle articulating and aligning with their true Source of Value: Culture and People.
Keith stresses the importance of a solid business foundation by clearly articulating:
1. What value do I want to deliver? - this is the Benefit Value offered thru a brand, service/relationship and/or products
2. What do I need to be good at? - this is the Process Value generated thru operations, customer management or innovation. In this category aim to be excellent at one, have parity on the 2nd and abandon the 3rd.
3. Who do I need in my team? and What is my culture? – these are the true Sources of Value and critical to implementing strategy.
Culture is always present through people and their behaviors. It shows us the strengths and challenges that support or block progress of business objectives. To uncover alignment between the desired culture and the actual execution I love to ask the following question: “what is that thing that we don’t talk about and that we should be talking about it?”
This is the “elephant in the room” that often is avoided as it is hard to discuss and confront. Facing it is the path to truly advance. I have found that often organizations portray characteristics of a culture that are in contradiction to the daily habits and actions of their people. Nothing different from what we may experience at our families or other groups that we belong to.
“Culture Eats Strategy for Breakfast..." It is that silent agent that dictates the cadence of progress of business objectives.
Stop and gain awareness of current culture; which simply is the collection of prevalent actions, words, beliefs, mindsets and behaviors surrounding your organization. Are they enabling that environment that we envision to accelerate business results? What is the gap between the vision vs. the reality? What are some actions you may take to gain alignment?