Culture in Action

One of the most enjoyable things I get to do as a leader is talk about our culture to new recruits, usually doing the induction program. While some of the companies (Amazon, Netflix and HubSpot for example) have a well known public document on their "culture code", in most companies it remains as a tribal knowledge, usually passed on from seniors/leaders. Some organisations regularly conduct refresher sessions, some do it by putting posters and the like. Whether they are practised or gets decayed over a period of time is dependent on many things. Let's dive a litter deeper.

"Culture" refers to the shared values, beliefs, behaviors, and norms that shape how employees interact, make decisions, and approach their work, often when no one is looking or monitoring. It gets furthered by consistent role modelling, recognition of the desired behavior and a reward system that speaks the culture. It decays when leaders deviate from the stated values, new hires that are counter culture and even cutting corners or toxic behaviours are tolerated for "rapid growth". Even in successful organisations, complacency, not listening to feedback or leaving conflicts unresolved would erode the culture. 

When I talk about culture, I would like to give examples and draw attention to "culture in action". My current organization (National Instruments) has four Core Values (or specifically, how we will always behave). They are:

• Constant respect for people
• Uncompromising honesty and integrity
• Dedication to serving our customers
• Commitment to Innovation and continuous learning

Our founder Dr. T insists that the order in which they are mentioned is also important as it represents a value-hierarchy, meaning "Constant respect for people" comes ahead of everything else for example. I was fortunate enough to be in Leadership training program that was led by Dr. T himself and we had a chance to go deeper on these and hear from him directly. 

In my experience, like children learn by observing their parents and not what parents are preaching, organisations too learn by observing leaders and not really what is printed bold. Here's where constantly highlight the examples where a core-value was in action helps. Some of the stories I've told while talking about culture (whether in a formal setting or in a water-cooler conversation) include:

• An SVP once unloaded my luggage from the boot of the cab, when I was still talking with the driver . When I protested, he simply asked "wouldn't you have done the same thing if you had gotten down first and I was still talking to the driver?"
• Regular to see Dr. T holding door to folks behind him
• Way certain firings were handled even when the folks were clearly at fault
• Sales people to engineers interacting with the customer being very honest about what the product can or cannot do for the customer
• Us offering "cheaper" alternatives to the customer even though we could have probably sold a higher cost offering, because we always looked at the best way to serve the customer
• Engineers consistently working long hours along with the customer helping them with their releases, even though technically it might not have been our issue or not enforcing the SLAs. Many a time these engineer didn't even report (let alone brag) about their additional efforts because that was right thing to do and I had come to know only through an appreciation mail from the customer.
• An environment where honest mistakes were accepted and people felt secure discussing about problems, issues or even failures without being worried about retribution. 
• Senior leaders leading the way in learning newer things, not getting stuck with NIH syndrome, or being open for scrutiny in search of better solutions. 

Rituals help actively nurture the culture. Some of the things I do to keep the culture on the right track include:

• Talking about examples of "culture in action" in town halls and/or newsletters
• Public reward/recognition of people acting as desired and creating an impact 
• Not being afraid to rebuke people that are toxic and counter-culture (sometimes it needs to be done in public, if the offence also happens in public)
• Explicitly asking for examples of good behaviour during promotion discussions
• Ofcourse role modelling above all

Nurturing culture isn't easy, but is very rewarding.

Love to hear things you are doing to nurture the culture in your respective organization.