The major driver of sustained excellence in businesses, teams, and organizations is culture by design. Unfortunately, very few are set up this way. Most have default cultures that have morphed over time.
There are two major keys to culture design success, each of which comes with a potential failure point. Those two keys are accountability and execution.
- Accountability. Design cultures have accountability woven tightly through every level of the organization. As importantly, these organization enforce their clearly understood expectations.
Failure point: Situational accountability. Situational accountability arises at many levels via multiple iterations that range from favoritism to fear of attrition.
Example: Companies that are quick to fire under-performers often use performance metrics to drive personnel decision-making. This is often false logic akin to “shooting the messenger” because performance issues stem from three primary causes and eight subset improvement opportunities.
Failure to diagnose and remedy these shortfalls — in areas of talent development, failure analysis, and modifiable strategic plans — means the ongoing frequency of non-performance will remain quite predictable. In other words, not solving the root cause issues prevents good people from turning under-performance into performers who deliver at expected or above average levels.
- Bottoms-up execution. Design cultures do not cascade expectations down. Rather, they do the exact opposite: they execute from the bottom up.
Failure point: Messaging and behaviors that drill from the top-down typically dilute in consistency the further south they permeate the organization. Nearly all organizations make this mistake. Mission statements are words of ambition that do not create a culture.
Example: Business leaders often send messages about the importance of a shared sense of purpose at every level. While those at the top are usually fully engaged and expect everyone else to act accordingly, they miss the key success ingredient: making sure that everyone below has the tools, environment, and personal self-worth she or he needs to do their job well with pride.
Telling them to care is one thing; helping them do prideful work is another. Design cultures eliminate the “leadership by message” vulnerability. They are built to enable everyone, from the bottom up, to have the tools necessary to do great work. They understand and remove impediments, freeing people to flourish.
Designing from the top is important. But executing from the bottom-up is vital. Bottoms-up execution is the key to culture design success.
Sustained excellence is never an accident. If you want to create or strengthen a self-sustaining culture, design it — don’t hope for it. Vibrant, winning organizations are fun to work for and attractive to top talent looking for a positive career move.
Build to win and trust the process.
Best regards,
Ocean Palmer