What is Organisational Culture?
Is it ping pong tables and free beer on tap? When you hear about a company having a “great culture” what does that mean?
Culture is simply:
“The way we do things around here”.
Organisational culture is “the way things are done around here”
It’s made up of the behaviours and ways of thinking that shape how things get done. In essence, your culture is the habits of your organisation.
In most companies, culture has grown organically out of the founders’ personal behavioural preferences. If they love(d) collaboration, then collaboration will be baked into the organisation’s DNA.
But equally, the founders’ less than desirable traits are also likely to be part of the culture. Traits like procrastination or authoritarianism can become ingrained behaviours of the whole organisation.
It is however, possible to design the culture you want. The best culture is one that serves your organisation’s purpose. If you can clearly link having a ping-pong table and offering free beer to your purpose – go right ahead. But becoming clear about the values that serve your purpose and the behaviours that operationalise those values will have a greater impact on leveraging culture to achieve your business goals.
Watch our in-depth training video: The Culture Effect - Why you need to establish a purpose-driven culture before even worrying about systems and strategy.