The levers used to create a great culture are the same regardless of the strategy but the culture will look and feel very different depending on what strategic focus you are applying these levers to.
For example, compare a strategy that requires a focus on innovation to one that has a strategy focused on managing risk. These are 2 very different strategies, but the levers you use to create a great culture is the same, it’s just what the levers focus on that is different.
Let’s break this down more:
Imagine you have a strategy in which excellence in risk management is a clear strategic choice.
Risk will be at the heart of everything you do and you will want your people to be empowered to make decisions on risk.
You’ll want managers to be open to, listen and act on anything that prevents, or hampers, good risk management. You will have channels that make this feedback easy and accessible.
You’ll invest in development programs that upskill everyone in risk, ensuring everyone continually improves their level of expertise in risk.
You’ll want your teams to work collaboratively so that risk excellence is developed across all areas of the business and improved ways to manage risk cross-functionally are generated and acted on.
You’ll want everyone to feel motivated to improve their risk management and be able to see for themselves if they are doing a good job when it comes to risk. They will need quality feedback on risk so they know exactly how to get even better.
Goals will be aligned to risk management, not too hard, not too easy. Achievable but challenging.
The first agenda item at all meetings is risk.
You’ll want everyone to feel safe admitting to mistakes on risks. You’ll use these mistakes as ways to learn and continually improve on managing risk. Everyone will be encouraged to constructively challenge each other on risk.
You will promote and reward those who role model the risk mindset and behaviours.
Risk excellence is celebrated.
You’ll want people to be able to see exactly how their job helps the organisation manage risk better. Everyone will feel that their unique role in managing risk is important and that it has a positive impact on their colleagues, their customers and the organisation’s purpose.
It will be clear exactly how risk aligns to your organisational purpose.
Now go through the above and change the word “risk” to “innovation”.
There are 7 cultural building blocks we can use in designing culture. These levers are the same for all cultures, but the focus of the levers, the strategic choice they are applied to, differs. It’s this difference that makes cultures feel unique. We can change the word “risk” to “innovation” in all the descriptions of the culture above and it still describes a great culture.
If innovation is a strategic choice then we prioritise the application of the 7 cultural levers to innovation. If customer centricity is your strategic choice then that’s where you prioritise your cultural levers.
The culture will feel different when it’s applied, for example, to innovation compared to risk, but it will be a great culture in either case. Built on the foundations of fairness, clarity, confidence and connection the 7 cultural levers are the tools to use in designing the culture applied to the strategic choice.
Is there a need to have a culture of innovation in one area of the business and a culture of risk in another? No, unless you have a 2 very different strategies…in which case you have a strategy problem to solve before you tackle the culture. Not being clear on strategic choices results in a lack of cultural clarity. If we don’t have a clear strategy then we won’t have a clear view on what to apply the cultural levers to.
To find out more on how to create the culture that enables your strategic choices book a discovery call with Sarah Robertson Consulting.
