Architecting Agile Culture
Beanbags, table tennis and slides do not culture make
One of my CEO clients had the dream job. From outside, everything looked tickety-boo. A growing business with plenty of funding. The people were amazing: smart, passionate, energetic. Everything a leader could dream of. The sunny office was bursting at the seams with positive, fun messaging. The bean bags were there. Tick. Post it notes and scribbles on every wall. Table football. Cuddly toys. Tick. Tick. Tick.
A dream work environment. All the trappings of a Talent Magnet. A veritable Zappos.
The visionary leader was on fire. Hiring the best, meeting clients, wooing partners, getting the word out about their amazing new product. Making decisions about the way the lab should operate.
She knew exactly where they were going, and her newly acquired team were empowered to get on and make it so. Her excitement was contagious.
Everything seemed so right, but she knew things were going wrong. They were not making progress as quickly as she expected. She was baffled.
Three days, 10 carefully structured interviews and one too many coffees later, a different reality emerged.
Everything was crystal clear in the CEOs head. Less so to the members of her fast growing team. Each had a different story about the vision, and the route they were taking to get there. Every member of the team was working flat out to please their visionary leader, but no-one was really clear about where they were going, or how their hard work were getting them closer to the shared goal.
She was too busy making magic to find time to sit and listen to her people. She was often out of the office, taking her passion and crystal clear vision with her.
Culture is what happens when the CEO leaves the room.
She had decreed a flat structure, yet hierarchy was emerging and the growing team were drifting into disconnected silos. Their understanding of the vision was diluted through Chinese whispers. Thinkers were drifting away from doers, creatives from geeks, and there was no operating model to stop the drift. There was lots of chatting, but no structured strategic communication framework across the organisation.
She was too busy to really listen so there was no way of fixing problems as they arose.
Many wanted to work remotely but weren’t allowed to do so. The CEO wanted everyone to be best buddies so they were expected to spend 8 hours pinned to their designer desks. There was no clear definition of success, so being successful was impossible. The seeds of frustration and dissent were germinating.
This was no “everyone culture”; more a baby dinosaur in a Zappos wrapper.
Once we had zoomed out to stare the reality of the situation in the face, we could explore ways of embedding little fixed.. and to harness all of that passion and good energy to progress at speed
“How do I know what I think until I see what I say.”
My client assumed everyone could see her vision but they could not. Once something is externalised (written down or drawn) it can be discussed, shared, collectively owned. When everyone can see, hear, feel, experience, internalise, repeat something, only then do you have a shared understanding.
Winning organisational operating structures are carefully designed to get the best from people. Those structures have to be supported by clearly defined ways of working and behaviours.
Strong brands are not logos and colour charts but a promise to everyone that touches your organisation based on clearly defined, shared stories, behaviours and values. That brand should be manifested across the organisation. Everyone at every level should live and breathe your brand. Every single employee, from CEO to intern, should be able to, and want to, share that collective story, in their own words, inside and outside your company. To clients, partners, customers.. and crucially to new recruits.
Strong brands and cultures do not happen by accident. Zappos spend invest heavily and consistently to make sure every single employee understands the brand behaviours, and that everyone at all levels, across all functions, feels like an active and valued participant in shared success.
You don't have to reinvent the wheel. Leaders have experimented with ways of getting the best from teams for many years. There's science behind this stuff. Giving an entry level marketer the task of designing a few fun activities will not a makes a strong culture. The best leaders invest in expertise to design a robust strategy that makes sure everyone pulls together in the same direction towards a shared north star.
The moral of the story?
Don't skimp on the most important foundation to success. Culture is the very fabric of your company. Zoom out, listen and playback the truth from multiple perspectives. Assemble those different versions to see whats really going on. Once you’ve established a shared honest understanding of “now”, you can work together to build an agile, efficient, productive company that attracts the very best talent.
