Culture doesn’t snap, it frays
A culture doesn’t break suddenly. It frays gradually, conversation by conversation.
The organisations that are best placed to meet the challenges of our unpredictable future are vibrant and adaptive. Their cultures define them more so than their strategies. They deliberately nurture cultures in which leaders, at all levels, take accountability, empower their teams, take smart risks, courageously give and seek feedback, innovate tirelessly and consistently challenge and support each other to be better.
Versus reality
Despite best intentions, I am seeing many organisations struggle to develop the cultures they know they need to succeed into the future.
Many have been through multiple rounds of restructuring. Economic headwinds have created tension in the system. The organisational focus has been on getting through this year. For the past three years. In many cases, culture has paid the price.
Even previously strong cultures have become, if not fractured, then at least bruised. I am regularly hearing some version of the following:
"We have become so transactional. I miss the culture we used to have."
"Cross-functional decisions seem to take longer now, there is less ease in how we work with each other."
"We invite too many people to our meetings and copy too many people on our emails. This feels less like collaboration and more like self-protection."
"Everyone is running so hard on their own hamster wheels that we don't know what other parts of the business are doing."
The frustration extends into the C-Suite.
Executive teams have seen a shift and its impact on business performance:
"We empower our Tier 3–4 managers, but they are not stepping up the way they used to."
"Issues are getting elevated to the executive team that should have been resolved much earlier."
"Our people aren't holding each other accountable. They are avoiding the tough conversations they need to be having for the business to be performing at the highest level."
"We need to adapt and innovate, but our people have become resistant to change."
Of course they have!
People have been water-blasted by changes they could not influence, and likely did not want, for three years or more. They have probably seen colleagues exit through restructure. They may have watched friends and family struggle to find new roles in a tough job market. They are likely alarmed by macro-trends: global security, AI, climate, inflation. Trends that are evolving quickly and unpredictably, impacting their lives in real terms and over which they have no influence.
In those circumstances, putting your head down and focusing on what you can control (and only on what you can control); i.e getting your job done, looking after your immediate team, is an entirely rational response.
But when you multiply it up, it does not make for a very vibrant, innovative, forward-looking culture. And that's causing real problems for organisations.
I also have huge empathy for senior leaders navigating these last few years. They have faced the same uncertainties as the people they lead, while working hard to deliver results today and reinvent their businesses for tomorrow. They have been balancing multiple, often competing stakeholder needs, and trying to maintain an air of reassuring confidence throughout. It's been (it still is) tough.
And yet, if you are a senior leader, you have likely had a longer line of sight, and a greater level of influence over outcomes, than the people you lead. As such, your experience of the past few years has been markedly different, psychologically speaking, from theirs. In that context, telling your people they are empowered is insufficient when their direct experience has so often felt disempowering.
This isn't a capability problem
If people who were once empowered, engaged and creative have become risk-averse, siloed and task-focused, the Mary Poppins strategy (clicking your fingers and expecting people to change) is unlikely to work.
It's not that your people have lost capability. And it's not that they care less about the business or each other than they used to.
It's a signal of disconnection. Disconnection between people, between functional teams, between employees and leadership. It’s a signal worth listening to.
The return to office debate misses the point
In our human need for easy answers, I often hear some version of: "Our culture has suffered because of flexible working. We need to bring people back into the office."
That may be part of it. Or not. But it's risky to assume that a return-to-office policy will fix everything. If your people are disconnected working flexibly or remotely, chances are they will remain disconnected back in the office. No amount of monthly drinks or morning teas will change that.
What connection really means
For people to engage again in smart risk-taking, reach across functional silos and build productive, trust-based relationships throughout the organisation they need to re-connect. In the deepest sense of that word.
Connect: from the Latin con (together) and nectare (bind). Literally — to bind together.
‘Connected’ doesn't simply mean knowing each other's names, roles and coffee orders.
It means a shared sense of belonging. A commitment to a shared purpose. Underpinned by trust, a shared language, and an ease in working together that only comes when you know your colleagues will give you grace. And when you genuinely believe that you, and your teams, can only be successful by working together collaboratively and courageously.
It all starts with conversation
Susan Glaser puts it beautifully:
The quality of your culture depends on the quality of your relationships.
The quality of your relationships depends on the quality of your conversations.
Everything I have learned from decades working in, and with, organisations tells me that is true.
The everyday conversations that happen, whether in structured meetings or in organic moments, throughout your organisation are the wellspring of your culture.
If these conversations are healthy, your culture will be healthy. If they tend to be shallow, tentative, guarded or defensive, if they err on the side of playing it safe, then that will permeate everything. And it will set a limit on what is possible for your organisation to achieve.
Not all conversations are created equal
Of course, small-talk has its place.
Likewise, an exchange of information followed by a quick decision is sometimes just what is needed.
However, the conversations that create vibrant and adaptive cultures are ones that:
o Deepen trust, rather than just preserve transactional relationships
o Stretch thinking, rather than seek consensus
o Get to the heart of real issues, rather than dance around the hard stuff
o Challenge old assumptions, rather than preserve the status quo and group-think
o Spark ideas and energy, rather than debate who is right and who is wrong
o Grapple with the most important questions, rather than look for quick answers
Vibrant, positive, creative cultures emerge from vibrant, positive and creative conversations. And these do not happen by accident.
Where to start
If this strikes a chord and you are looking to reignite your organisational culture, you don't need more slide decks and posters, change-management plans or an army of consultants. Start the everyday practice of human conversation.
First, pause and notice the quality of the conversations around you, whether they are in formal meetings or by the coffee machine:
o Are people staying on the surface, in the safe space of transactional exchange, or are they going to the heart of things?
o Does new thinking, new ideas emerge from conversations – or are people going through the motions?
o How honest and courageous are people with each other when things go wrong?
o What conversations are not happening, and what might that tell you about where connection is not yet strong enough in your organisation?
If you see opportunity for improvement the next step is to create the space, build the trust and develop the skills, for your people to (re)connect and to have conversations that count.
In Part 2, I'll share what leaders can practically do to create that space and build those skills.