Yesterday I spent time with one of my client companies revisiting their culture statement. I used the classic quote from Peter Drucker to kick off the workshop . . . . .
“Culture eats strategy for breakfast”
Peter Drucker
It was true when he first coined this phrase and it still applies today. Perhaps more than ever. A thriving culture contributes to the success of teams and organisations. A sub optimal culture makes life more difficult, less enjoyable and less productive for everyone.
My clients were starting at a high level as the objective and anonymous “culture : current state” exercise revealed. Over the course of the engaged session we explored what their culture future state could look like.
Having gathered the key words and phrases that best captured their desired culture future state, we then discussed how this could realistically be achieved in the implementation phase. An initial series of practical and tangible actions and activities was created by the team in the facilitated breakout session.
Additional we discussed and aligned on the “rules of the road” that all of the team would sign up to that clarified expectations around acceptable and unacceptable behaviours and actions both internally amongst the team and externally with customers, suppliers and other stakeholders.
I’m looking forward to working on this further with the team over the comings weeks.
So, a few questions for you to ponder : If I asked your team and your stakeholders to describe your culture, what would they say? Would you like what you would hear? What do you need to change? How could you make that happen?
As always, thanks for watching and please leave a comment below.