The Digital Battle — Can You Really Build Company Culture?

The culture of your company can make or break your career, your competitive edge, and your industry experience.  Can anyone really shape company culture? Or are you resigned to deal with the culture that is already in place? In the latest Digital Battle, Craig Brown and Mark Pendergast examine the hows and whys behind successfully changing company culture. Craig considers company culture a key component to staying competitive, while Mark argues that it’s very, very difficult to build a new company culture so you’re better off adapting the one you have with the problem at hand.  But who is right?    On today’s podcast, you will learn: What sustains and drives culture? Culture is the collection of stories around your company. With company culture, everyone knows the path to success and just follows it.  Culture is shaped by what management pays attention to and rewards.  It can be so difficult to change company culture because it’s distributed throughout the entire company.  Alternately, accepting company culture can mean that your company is resigned to not staying competitive.  Culture should be more about innovation and less about bureaucracy.  Embracing change while maintaining quality is essential to staying competitive.    Subcultures within a company  Subcultures that are innovating and creating need to be fostered throughout the entire company.  Subcultures have the potential to change the entire company culture for the better.  Subcultures can create tension with management and across the company.  The overall company culture is present while specifics vary from group to group.  Leadership, not management, has the power to change culture for the better.  Quality cannot be negatively impacted by any attempts at creating subculture.    A manager’s impact on culture change People don’t follow managers just because of their title, they follow leaders they believe in.  Leaders need to exhibit the culture that they expect people to follow. Effective change doesn’t happen with memos- it happens with actions.  Culture is created with stories, celebrations and communications.  Outside personalities do not have the same sustainable impact on company culture as leaders do.  Why do people resist culture change?  Real change is uncomfortable, and it’s rare to find people who really want to change.  Fear is a major factor in resisting change.  People will resist change if they’re not confident that leadership will support them.  Leaders have to be the driving force behind change.  People don’t resist change, they resist being changed.  Effective change happens when people are willing to make the change themselves.    Continue the conversation with us within the Digital Enterprise Society Community at DigitalEnterpriseSociety.org.   Digital Download: Virtual Round-Table Series