Many cultures

You must, as a 21st Century human, participate in many cultures.  Your business definitely does as well. Not only that, but in my opinion, in the case of your business, it actually should have many (or at least multiple) cultures. Just so you know, I have colleagues who vociferously disagree with that last bit -- who think that a business should have one culture that is pervasive throughout every aspect of the business. So let me explain my position on this disagreement.

First of all, what do we mean when we say "a culture"? Here's a pretty good definition that matches the way I use the term: "a set of ideas, beliefs, and ways of behaving of a particular organization or group of people". (By the way, I found this by using one of my favorite sites -- www.onelook.com.)

Ideas, beliefs, and behavior of a particular organization or group. This is not a wishy washy, touchy feely matter. Hard-nosed business people take culture very seriously. Here's what Lou Gerstner says about his time as the CEO of IBM: “In all of my business career, I would have always said that culture is one of the five or six things you worry about if you're a leader. You worry about markets, and competitors, and financial assets and strategy. And somewhere on the list is culture. What I learned at IBM is that culture isn’t part of the game. It is the game.” (Gerstner, 2002). So, yes, your business is a particular organization, and there is probably a recognizable “corporate culture”.

Another example I observed personally of cultures at work was the regional telephone company where I worked for a few years, not too long after the breakup of AT&T.  Prior to divestiture, it was common for people to refer to the unified, national telephone company as "Ma Bell".  This sounded to my outsider's ears as a relatively meaningless cliche.  But looking at the company from inside, in a time of great turmoil, that phrase took on real, and poignant, meaning.  One of the people I worked most closely with was a 3^rd generation Bell employee.  Her father's name was carved in a granite wall in the lobby of the headquarters building, as one of dozens of heroic employees, who had made a life-saving rescue from a flooded river.  He had been a District Manager, and following in his footsteps, she later also became a manager of a local office.  She would tell the story about how part of her actual responsibility was to check up on an employee after a couple of days of absence.  And how her responsibility included a personal visit, to take groceries to the home of the sick employee.  By the time I heard such stories, the company was well down the path of culture change, from the parental guardian of community and employees, to a marketplace competitor with more "modern" perceptions of its role in the marketplace

Elements of a corporate culture include: norms of behavior, guidelines for handling various types of situations, styles of dress (even uniforms), manner of conducting working interactions, ceremonies and manner of celebrating.  A corporate culture generally originates from the personalities of the founders, as well as founding stories or creation myths that get passed down and elaborated over time.

However, there are other sources of cultural elements, aside from the unique corporate culture that the founders have passed down.  The primary sources of these additional cultural elements are the professional disciplines that are required to run a business.  Think about accounting.  Think about sales.  Could there be any more distinctive cultures (ideas, beliefs, behaviors) than the risk-alert accountant, the bean counter, vs. the star salesperson who takes whatever risk is necessary to close the deal?  Or how about sales vs. engineering?  "If we can sell it, those guys can make it work."  

But remember, I said that your business should have multiple cultures.  Behind those stereotypic images, there are very good reasons to support a dynamic tension between a culture of risk-taking, and a culture of risk mitigation.  A culture that deals in excitement and enthusiasm in the marketplace, balanced by a culture of delivery of robust, high-quality products and services.  These, and many others, are necessary.  But what's equally necessary is to maintain balance among them.  This is a key challenge for you as a business leader.

Understanding cultural factors can give you the ability to predict how various interventions and stimuli will be received by organizations.  And cultural practices can actually be designed, especially if you can find the expert consultant who can do just that. An example is Sara Moulton Reger's technique -- patented, practiced, and written up in her book Can Two Rights Make a Wrong: Insights from IBM's Tangible Culture Approach.
Perhaps you already know you are dealing with cultural element that are out of a healthy balance.  Remember, some dynamic tension is actually healthy, but constant conflict can also be destructive, and an unhealthy drain on energy.

To get back to the hub list of healthy business factors, click here.
To get back to the discussion of businesses as living systems, here.