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subject: Understanding Corporate Culture by:Debra Lea Thorsen [print this page]

Culture: n 1. natural phenomenon that is created whenever a group of

people come together to collaborate; 2. foundation for all decisions and

actions within an organization; 3. the way things are around here.

Every time people come together with a shared purpose, culture is

created. This group of people could be a family, neighborhood, project

team, or company. Culture is automatically created out of the combined

thoughts, energies, and attitudes of the people in the group.

I often compare culture to electricity. Culture is an energy force

that becomes woven through the thinking, behavior, and identity of those

within the group. Culture is powerful and invisible and its

manifestations are far reaching. Culture determines a company's dress

code, work environment, work hours, rules for getting ahead and getting

promoted, how the business world is viewed, what is valued, who is

valued, and much more.

Culture shows up in both visible and invisible ways. Some

manifestations of this energy field called "culture" are easy to

observe. You can see the dress code, work environment, perks, and titles

in a company. This is the surface layer of culture. These are only some

of the visible manifestations of a culture.

The far more powerful aspects of culture are invisible. The cultural

core is composed of the beliefs, values, standards, paradigms,

worldviews, moods, internal conversations, and private conversations of

the people that are part of the group. This is the foundation for all

actions and decisions within a team, department, or organization.

Visible Manifestations of Culture

Dress Code

Work Environment

Benefits

Perks

Conversations

Work/Life Balance

Titles & Job Descriptions

Organizational Structure

Relationships

Invisible Manifestations of Culture

Values

Private Conversations (with self or confidants)

Invisible Rules

Attitudes

Beliefs

Worldviews

Moods and Emotions

Unconscious Interpretations

Standards

Paradims

Assumptions

Business leaders often assume that their company's vision, values,

and strategic priorities are synonymous with their company's culture.

Unfortunately, too often, the vision, values, and strategic priorities

may only be words hanging on a plaque on the wall.

In a thriving profitable company, employees will embody the values,

vision, and strategic priorities of their company. What creates this

embodiment (or lack of embodiment) is the culture that permeates the

employees' psyches, bodies, conversations, and actions.

The energy fields that make up a group's culture are dynamic and

change continuously. Culture is created and constantly reinforced on a

daily basis through conversations, symbols, rituals, written materials,

and body language. It is the small, mundane actions and behaviors that

create a culture and can shift a culture.

Creating and sustaining a healthy, vibrant culture requires

reinforcement of the culture through daily and proactive conversations

and communications. The failure to discuss the values, purpose, and

rules within a group often leads to a culture that is at cross purposes

with the stated intention of the group. Poor communication creates a lot

of confusion and often a crisis of meaninglessness.

Since a culture is created every time a group of people come together

to form a team, a company will have many sub-cultures that exist within

its main culture. For example, the marketing and technology teams may

have different worldviews, jargon, work hours, and ways to do things. A

big challenge for today's company is to create a strong, cohesive

corporate culture that pulls all of the sub-cultures together and

ensures that they can work as a unified team.

Most companies try to "fix" perceived problems by addressing the

parts of the corporate culture that are easy to see. Some quick-fixes

include holding Friday beer bashes and company picnics or adding fringe

benefits and perks. None of these actions will have a powerful or

lasting effect on a company's culture.

So, if the powerful part of culture is invisible, how can you affect

it? Through conversation. Conversations have the power to make the

invisible visible. Language is not merely descriptive, it is generative.

Language and conversations have the power to generate a new, powerful

future and to create a cultural energy field that will support and

sustain this future.

The CEO and leadership team of a company have a powerful impact on

culture through their conversations and behaviors. Business leaders can

pro-actively create a thriving culture by understanding what culture is

(and is not) and learning how to have fundamental business conversations.

Unfortunately, most business leaders receive little to no education

on how to have powerful conversations that generate culture and actions.

Culture building can be learned, but it takes an honest commitment from

the leadership team of an organization.

About the author

Find out how to successfully change your corporate culture. Debra Lea

Thorsen helps companies optimize their corporate cultures. Visit

www.culturebuilders.com for a free white paper - Corporate

Culture Change: Aligning People and Profits.

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