This post was inspired by the first comment on my post about Deloitte’s Seven Signals.
A company’s culture has a direct effect on its productivity, operational cohesion, brand differentiation, and ability to innovate (or to minimise deviance and maximise stability).
A culture programme is a formalised way to instil and perpetuate a culture. It does act as a pre-selection filter for potential new recruits. But it is not guaranteed to select new recruits with perfect fit. Because the indoctrination and assimilation process must necessarily take time, actual time spent in the organisation. The longer you live the culture, the more likely you will absorb it. If you don’t fit, you’ll find out very soon in the process.
Thus the ability of a culture programme to select only new hires with the perfect fit cannot be a meaningful judge of its success.
So what are the possible measures of a successful culture programme?
- Its ability to maintain a stable talent pool of like-minded like-valued people over time.
- Its ability to appeal to a diverse pool of people; its ability enable diverse personalities to embrace and personalise its values, to make them their own.
- Its ability to create a consistent experience across all touchpoints.
- Its ability to deliver a consistent brand message and personality.
- Its unambiguously actionable nature (focus on behaviour not nature); you can easily put it into action, and you can clearly see it being actioned.
Can you think of more?
