Do you have culture dysmorphia?
Yesterday I was chatting on the phone with my friend Kevin, who happens to be an Executive in a large corporation. As it often does, our conversation turned to work. Here’s what Kevin had to say…
‘I’ve been with Company A for 5 years. Honestly, I’ve known for most of that time I don’t fit the culture. Think of me as an orange — a driver of innovation and change, big, freaking hard, transformational change. People and leadership are at the heart of everything I do. I know most people say that — but in my case it really is true.
Where I’m an orange, Company A is a lime. In other words, “not very good at delivering a desperately needed cultural transformation”. When they recruited me they said they wanted another orange to join the team. They said, “Company A is an orange”. They lied.’
Kevin and I started talking about whether the lie was an “informed” one. In other words, did they recognise themselves as a lime, but pretended to be an orange? Was this an example of “if we say it enough times it will be true”? Or, did they not even realise the difference between an orange and a lime masquerading as an orange?
It made me wonder about the idea of “culture dysmorphia”…
the idea that an entrenched culture could, in fact, be based on a flawed self-perception. Imagine the implications for companies who see themselves as one thing but are in fact something else.
Let’s start with the easy one — hiring and retaining key talent. There’s nothing more disappointing or disillusioning that accepting a role only to find out that the company culture isn’t what was promised. Living with the pain of disappointment and feeling like a misfit clearly isn’t a good recipe for productivity, engagement or tenure. The likely turnover that results is expensive — in terms of direct hiring costs and the opportunity costs of lost momentum.
While the talent issue is a significant one, the more complex problem is rooted in the link between culture and strategy. If you believe, as I do, that culture is an asset that enables strategic advantage, then failure to see and understand your own actual culture will inevitably lead to flawed strategic decisions. While those flawed decisions are likely to have significant consequences, the cultural dysmorphia will make them hard to unravel because you’re unable to accurately see the inputs to those decisions.
Talking to leaders in a broad range of organisations, from early-stage startups to ASX20, has led me to conclude that confusion between actual and desired culture is a common problem.
In particular, it’s common to see leaders actively choosing to anchor internal rhetoric with aspiration. This is designed to clarify a target state for the team — which is a worthwhile endeavour. There is a but here…unless the sense of aspiration is explicit — ‘we strive to be…’ rather than ‘we are…’ — it comes with the risk that dissonance is created between a team’s day-day experiences and the rhetoric. And that dissonance makes it hard for people to know how they should behave. Should they do what they see, or do what they hear? And if the team does not believe that leadership understands the difference between reality and the aspiration when it comes to culture, it is likely to erode trust and commitment in the organisation.
Culture should provide a consistent, instinctive short cut or compass to the “the way we work here” — but if the messages are mixed, confusion and mistrust will reign supreme.
So, if you’re looking to join a new company and want to put the culture rhetoric to the test, or you’re feeling like things might be a little out of sync with your current team, here are a few questions you can ask:
What part of the <stated culture> shows up most frequently here? How does it show up?
When you say the company is <an orange>, what do you mean by that? How do customers experience that (and what do they tell you about it)? Where is that driven from within the company?
How can you see the <stated culture> in the behaviour and decisions of the leadership team?
What is the biggest change needed here for the company to be 100% true to it’s values?
What are the signs that tell you that the team is ready to accept (and leverage) <an orange>? What were the last 3 most significant hires for the company?
When you think about people who have voluntarily left the company recently, what did you notice about the way they think and behave? Was there anything consistent about either?
The question of fit is something that is often talked about — particularly in the recruitment frame when it comes to companies and new employees. Answering that question does depend on whether or not you can get a true read on the culture, one that goes beyond hopes and provides that short cut to understanding the essence of the organisation and the way they get things done.