by Diana Rivenburgh
[Guest Blog Post]
What causes cultures to run amok? Why do people do things they never thought they would? Perhaps the most important question is “what can we do to create ethical, high-performance, engaged cultures?”
Simply scan the daily headlines to find evidence of dysfunctional cultures:
“Pfizer caught running global bribery network,”
“JP Morgan Chase Will Pay $13 Billion in Record Settlement,”
“Cheating Probe Roils Philadelphia Schools.”
What causes cultures to run amok? Why do people do things they never thought they would? Perhaps the most important question is “what can we do to create ethical, high-performance, engaged cultures?”
Toxic Cultures
While there’s no lack of examples of toxic cultures, there are many organizations where people love their work, go above and beyond, strive for innovation and collaborate for greater results. Culture does more than create a great place to work.
Research over several decades from Denison Consulting and others clearly shows the correlation between culture and every financial and productivity measure you can think of.
Three keys for culture transformation
Whether you seek to create the culture for your new firm or change an existing one, focus your efforts on three keys for culture transformation – lead, engage and align.
Lead: Toxic leaders create toxic cultures. Vibrant leaders create vibrant cultures. Culture begins to form from the very beginning based on the founder’s vision, values and style, and continues to evolve as new leaders join.
Starbucks’ CEO Howard Schultz held faithfully to the company’s values even when, in 2008, the company’s stock price dropped 52% and its fourth quarter earnings were down 97%. Shultz firmly believes that making money and raising stock prices are shallow goals unless they are linked to creating value for society and people. This commitment paid off as the company’s stock percolated up to record earnings.
Engage: Engaged employees bring their best to work every day, go above and beyond, invest extra time and effort, and find ways to continuously improve and innovate. Organizations with highly engaged workforces identify individual strengths, place people in roles that fit these strengths, develop strong leaders and managers and create the right work environment for success.
Novo Nordisk, the world’s leading provider of insulin, recognizes the value of culture and employee engagement to its business success. This Danish-based pharmaceutical company audits employee engagement every year and requires all its managers to have engagement plans in place. Managers work with employees to identify strengths and set them up for success by placing them in roles where they can tap into these assets.
Align: Every organization operates with management systems comprised of processes, policies and practices for hiring, training, performance management, communication, compensation and governance. All of these as well as its organizational structure and workspace design must align to achieve the desired culture.
A client of ours was dealing with chaos and frustration after going through multiple acquisitions. Identifying and changing many of their systems, practices and structures to align to their strategy and desired culture resulted in stronger collaboration, higher engagement, improved client satisfaction and greater profitability.
Take a look at your organization to determine the ways you can lead better, engage your people, and align your management practices to achieve the high performance culture needed to realize your company’s vision and achieve its strategic goals.
The author
Diana Rivenburgh @sustainableorgs is a consultant, speaker, recovering corporate executive, and author of The New Corporate Facts of Life and is a Top 100 Thought Leader for Trustworthy Business 2014.
Posted by Tudor Rickards 
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“Why don’t I ever post comments to this site?” Let’s be having you
January 28, 2014Delia Smith
A good question. Louise teaches leadership on courses around the world. So why doesn’t she contribute comments?
“You don’t get many comments at all.”
It’s a fair point. I mumbled something about maybe readers are a bit embarrassed to post comments for some reason. Maybe my students don’t want to risk looking foolish? But Louise isn’t a student.
“Perhaps” added Louise “you can ask a question at the end of a post to encourage comments”.
Me: “I have to think about how to do that. Maybe I need to work on it” [was I being defensive?]”
So I thought a bit about the idea and came up with a question which may be the sort of thing Louise had in mind.
The question inviting comments
So here’s a question for readers. I know you are out there, at least visiting Leaders We Deserve, even if you don’t comment. Do you have any suggestions to add to Louise’s which you would like to contribute? Why not write a comment? I read them all, and try to comment back. Don’t worry if you think your English is not good enough. Our readership comes from over 180 countries, and there is editorial help if needed. I look forward to reading your suggestions.
And after commenting, how about writing a post?
Maybe it’s one short comment for Louise and one big step towards publishing a blog post. As the national treasure Delia Smith once said, appealing to her [football] supporters “Come on, let’s be having you’. Students are particularly welcomed.
Tudor Rickards
Editor, Leaders We Deserve