I attended the 2019 Continuous Improvement Conference in Dallas this year and was really thrilled with not only the experience and the people I had the privilege of meeting but also the focus on culture. This is, in my experience, one of the most uncomfortable and difficult subjects for businesses to address effectively.
Why is this? Often, it’s because we are keenly aware of the things we lack. We lack work, customers, a plan, money…the list goes on. It’s easy to focus on the things we are uncomfortable about not having enough of rather than the things we have in front of us that we can capitalize on with just a little attention.
The fact about culture is that you can’t avoid it, and you can’t trade your culture in for a new one overnight. Your culture is yours and it belongs to everyone in your enterprise. You have it whether you want it or not.
Here’s three things we tend to do on the subject of culture:
- Ignore it. Because what you can’t see can’t hurt you, right? Wrong. Ignoring this amounts to ignoring your people, who are just as much your customer as are the clients you serve externally.
- Pretend it’s something it isn’t. Often, this presents itself in the practice of wearing rose-colored glasses when considering a situation, a circumstance, or even an interaction. It’s very easy to overlook the reality of the culture when that reality is uncomfortable.
- Passively hope it changes itself. Sorry, but it won’t, and this is perhaps the most detrimental tack we can take. It leads to a lack of personal responsibility for the culture of the company, which means that if you are in a leadership position, you are telling everyone else they don’t need to take responsibility for positive change either.
So what can you do? Here’s some questions to consider:
- Am I a leader in this organization? How can I tell?
- If I am a leader, how am I leading? How would people tell me I am leading them? Would they tell me I am a leader with a positive or a negative impact?
- What do I think about the culture of this place?
- Do I like coming to work everyday? What do I enjoy? What do I dislike?
Finally, the thing to remember is that there is no change that is too small to make a difference. Now go out there and change the world around you for the better.