Nobody Cares About Your Culture

I've spent a lot of time thinking, learning, talking, and writing about culture. I can nerd out with the best of them when it comes to pontificating on how impactful they can be. But I'm also aware that not everyone shares my passion. I realize that, ultimately, nobody really cares about your culture.

It's a hard reality, especially for those of us who really value what culture means. But I get it. Culture is hard to quantify. It's difficult to attach a ROI to. As such, if you're a leader, you can't hang your hat on culture alone. You need to put up numbers, too.

You're aware (consciously or subconsciously) of the cultures that you're a part of. You know if it's the type of environment that makes you and the team better. You also know if it's toxic. But outside of your personal experience, what cultures are you even aware of? Odds are, the ones you've heard about fall into one of three buckets: a) winning cultures b) losing cultures and c) gossip-column worthy toxic cultures. Nobody talks about the incredible growth environment surrounding the middling consumer goods company. Columns aren't written about the winning culture surrounding a 4th place team.

Sure, the people on your team care. They want to be part of something bigger than themselves. They want to believe that their teammates have their back and are genuinely pulling for their success. They want to grow. But they care about compensation, job security, and winning more. And everyone who's not part of your organization? They care about results. Period. You can explain the how, the why, and the with whom you do what you do. If you're not producing, nobody's listening.

The flipside of that means if you are winning, people want to know what the special sauce is. They want to mimic it. They want what you have. Then, suddenly people's ears perk up when you talk about the culture that has lead to these desirable results. There's a contrast between the people on the outside focused on results and those on the inside who are building a foundation of success toward those results.

It's the transactional ("I want results like theirs so I'm going to model our organization's culture after theirs") vs the transformative ("We're going to build a cultural foundation that will build toward and sustain success once it intersects with our strategy and talent").

Winning organizations know that they have something special before anyone else does. They're a championship team before the results show it. They build toward excellence fundamentally and deliberately. They build that culture because it will lead to and be able to sustain success. Then everyone else scrambles to figure out how the "overnight success" did what they did.

I firmly believe an impactful culture is a competitive advantage. But there's definitely some chicken or egg discussion to be had. Does culture breed success or does success promote good cultures? Or is there a third, non-poultry related explanation?

Like with most things, it's about balance. Culture will rarely be enough to put you over the top. You need talent, strategy, and execution. Similarly, relying solely on skill often won't cut it either. There are a lot of talented people and organizations out there. What's going to separate you?

During the Patriots dynasty, a lot of attention was paid to the "Patriot Way". They had a tremendous coach and quarterback for the entirety of the dynasty, and were complimented by really talented rosters. But there's no question that the culture that was created there transcended the talent level. They were maniacal about the Patriot Way: team over self. You either did it their way our you were out. With all of the ego, money, competition, and distraction that come with professional sports, what allowed Bill Belichick to create and sustain this culture? Simple: he won early in his tenure as coach. That gave him more and more latitude over the years. Your leash gets longer and longer when you're producing. Belichick won, which enabled him to build something lasting in his image, that he felt would sustain that success. Balance. Had he not had such tremendous early success, odds are we never hear about the Patriot Way.

People don't care about your culture, until they do. So with that in mind, there are a couple ways to skin the cat. We have to prioritize our approach based on where we are in our organization's competitive cycle. If you get that part wrong, you're probably sunk, no matter which path you choose. You need to be brutally honest with yourself. Are we talented enough to win in the near term? Then let's focus on winning, knowing that the winning will afford us latitude down the road to build something special. Or does your lack of talent or resources force you to take the long view? If you know winning isn't in the cards for you in the near term, a better approach may be to focus on the ground up. Build in a more linear fashion, shaping and nurturing a culture that will lead to sustained success.

Whether it's now or later, there's a symbiotic relationship between winning and culture. Without enough of one, you won't have enough of either.