One of the more common questions we are asked by leaders in organisations is:
How am I going to achieve the [ever-increasing] financial results I’m looking for?
This question isn’t new. Commercial targets and business expectations have always existed but how we go about achieving them has changed.
It wasn’t so long ago that if there was a business goal to be met, we would look at the behaviour we needed to change to help accelerate our success. We would drive very specific behaviours by directing team members to do very specific things.
Recently, we have realised there is something far greater behind this that needs to be worked on first. Culture.
Why is culture important?
Culture is important to organisational success because getting it right will drive the right behaviour. But far more importantly culture will ensure that everyone is engaged in something more important than the work itself. It will drive discretionary effort which means that team members will work harder, deliver higher quality work and give more of themselves because they truly believe in the culture of the organisation they are choosing to work with. Culture -> Behaviour -> Outstanding Results.
We define culture as: the way we do it here.
Culture embodies how we want to operate. It defines values, commitment, priorities, what we are working towards and WHY we are working towards it. When everyone involved with an organisation has bought into its culture (we call this culture alignment), they will understand the behaviours needed to embody that culture and demonstrate them.
