Deconstructing Culture

Every good executive knows the importance of a healthy corporate culture, but few have spent much time defining culture. Most definitions of culture read like: 

“Culture is how we do things around here.”

“Culture is the set of (mostly unspoken) behavioral expectations in an organization.”

While these definitions may be true, I don’t find them particularly helpful. These definitions don’t help answer questions like: Is our culture healthy? What parts of our culture are not healthy? How do we improve our culture?

At a networking event a couple years ago, I heard a speaker say, “your culture is the character of your organization.” I like that. I think it is true. But again, not particularly helpful. 

So, I spent some time deconstructing his statement. Here’s what emerged:

Your CULTURE is the CHARACTER of your organization. 

Your CHARACTER is your IDENTITY plus your HABITS.

Your IDENTITY is the story you tell yourself about yourself.

Your HABITS are what you do consistently.

In a corporate context, IDENTITY (or the story a company tells about itself) can be summarized in 3 statements:

• VISION: what are we trying to accomplish?

• MISSION: how are we going to accomplish our VISION?

• VALUES: how do we behave?

All vision, mission, and value statements are a mixture of actual (what we actually do) and aspirational (what we want to do). But having clarity and alignment on your vision, mission and values is a critical first step to developing a healthy culture.

In a corporate context, HABITS are pretty easy to discern. I’ve seen 5 primary habits:

• CADENCE: what are or work routines & rhythms? 

• CONFLICT: how do we handle disagreements? 

• CARE: how do we care for our people?

• CELEBRATION: who and what and how do we celebrate?

• DECISIONS: how are decision made within your company?

These are not the only habits in an organization. And I’ve certainly seen deeper dynamics that drive these habits. But the purpose of this exercise is not to create a comprehensive definition of culture. We need a functional, actionable definition. So, for those of you keeping score at home, here is how I’ve deconstructed culture:

• Your Company CULTURE = Your CHARACTER = Your IDENTITY + Your HABITS

• IDENTITY = VISION + MISSION + VALUES

• HABITS = CADENCE + CONFLICT + CARE + CELEBRATION + DECISIONS

• Your Company CULTURE = VISION + MISSION + VALUES + CADENCE + CONFLICT + CARE + CELEBRATION + DECISIONS

I find this deconstruction to be more helpful than a definition because we can look at each of the 8 components of culture and evaluate them.