Building a culture of……. (insert your own word)iIs a bit of a cliché. I have seen it in many documents that purport to be describing the mission, purpose, and all the rest of a business. Often it becomes a melange of meaningless words that offer no sense of direction to anyone, no sense of what you do around here, and what you do not.
Culture emanates from the senior levels of an organisation, particularly the person at the top.
Walking the talk is the absolutely essential ingredient in creating a culture.
Walking through a significant Sydney factory with the businesses MD some months ago, one that has a culture, and resulting productivity to which other manufacturers should aspire, he made a simple gesture that personified the culture.
The factory bashes metal, so is inclined to accumulate dust, off cuts, and debris in many forms, but this one is clean enough to eat your lunch off the floor. As we were walking, he bent over and picked up a small piece of paper, looked up at me and said: ‘Culture becomes what you are prepared to tolerate’
Nobody in that factory would walk past a piece of paper, or any other sort of litter on the floor.
If you want an orderly factory, keep everything orderly.
If you want accountability, give people the authority to get the job done, and hold them accountable.
If you want to remove gossip, never talk about someone unless they are in the conversation
If you want transparency, be transparent.
People may listen to what you say, but their behaviour is driven by what they see you do.
Culture is like a house of cards: hard to build, easy to destroy, really hard to change.
Colin, I am delighted that you found it useful.
Here here. I am in the middle of working with a client on exactly this issue. Thanks for making it so clear Allen.