Big or Small it’s Always Culture

It continues to amaze me how many organizations allow their culture to simply evolve without intentionality. Boards and executive teams invest massive parts of their agenda on the business model performance, long term strategy and relevant metrics. Certainly, these considerations are necessary and important.

However, the overwhelming data points to a thriving culture as the KEY DIFFERENTIATING way to more value creation, less risk and more effective adaptability. Whether a big organization or small business the examples are everywhere if you take the time to look.

Dig into all the Glassdoor companies with a 4.0 overall score or greater, or examine the A+ culture organizations on Comparibly.com. Study the Great Place to Work’s top ranked institutions. Discover the companies on Fortune's top performer lists! Etc! The guiding examples are there to inspire you. 

Below are highlights from two companies: The culture turnaround of Uber, and a fast growing regional tech company that believes culture is the basis of their success. Learn from them and the many others out there. 

“Changing the Uber company culture:

Under the leadership of CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, Uber has evolved from a culture of ‘move fast and break things’ to ‘move fast and do the right thing’ and is prioritizing the needs of its customers and employees alongside growth, scale, and profit. Through deliberate unlearning of a toxic culture over time, and despite operating at a loss for nearly 14 years, Uber 2.0 has led a significant overhaul of its culture and helped it reach its first operating profit. Uber’s story underlines the need for steep learning curves, difficult choices, and ethical leadership at every turn.’

Becoming One of The Best Small Workplaces:

Growth is the ultimate goal for most businesses, but scaling gracefully can be a challenge. Nancy Martindell, founder of JMA Resources, a rapidly expanding IT solutions firm based in Mechanicsburg, Pa., learned this early on. Since its inception in 2018, JMA has quickly expanded from one to 80 employees. The key to navigating this evolution? Investing in her people.

‘One of the challenges of growing, especially with a majority of employees working remotely, is staying well-connected,’ says Martindell. ‘I make it a priority to maintain a people-first culture by focusing on building the sort of company that I would want to work for.’”

If your Glassdoor score is less than 3.5, I would bet your organization is an average performing company by most financial terms. My guess is that your “recommendation to a friend” score is likely less than 65 percent, and your Net Employee Promoter Score is in the negative range.  With these results, you will likely continue to be average at best. The executive rationalization is often that primarily disgruntled employees get on these social media platforms. If you believe that, implement a culture wellness survey and I genuinely believe the results will closely reflect the results of the numbers on these external platforms. 

The first step in advancing your culture is to openly and honestly recognize where your organization is at. From there you can find your way forward. Organizations like CulturGenix.com can help. There are many other qualified firms to assist you. 

As per our mantra: Think Big, Start Small and Act Now. Be intentional! (Unless you prefer less value, higher risk and lagging adaptability, then just keep doing what you’re doing). 

- Lorne 

One Millennial View: Ideally, we’re speaking to leaders who understand they can provide an opportunity to advance the excellence of themselves, their teams and organization by focusing on culture. 

Outside observers can comprehend the dilemma. There may be some misconception that a well intentioned culture is aspirational, unobtainable, or a veneered distraction from achieving what’s most important - making money. And sure, you could have the most picturesque culture on the planet, but if the organization isn’t staying afloat, your culture drowns anyway. 

We get how this could be considered extra work… It is. Yet, we like leaders who consider the effort to be foundational.  

- Garrett
































































































































 

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