What Makes A Successful Culture
/For 47 years, from 1973, until my retirement in 2018, I played a leadership role at CLASS (Community Living and Support Services). CLASS, a nonprofit organization, serves individuals with disabilities and their families and has grown to become a major advocacy/service force in Pittsburgh/Southwestern PA region.
As the CEO of CLASS, I felt my most important task was to build a strong, caring culture for the folks we served, our staff, and volunteers, and in that challenge I studied everything I could get my hands on regarding culture development. Now that I am retired, I am still on the prowl for resources that can help me in my present role as an organizational consultant and executive coach. That is why the core of my consulting practice focuses on the critical aspect of organizational culture.
Knowing this, my daughter, Gianna, just gave me a new book titled, The Culture Code, by Daniel Coyle (2018). It is a robust examination of culture, and looks to reveal the secrets of highly successful groups. In it, he summarizes 3 key skills in developing a vital culture. These are: 1. The leader builds safety for the members, 2. The leader must share their vulnerability, and 3. The leaders must establish a compelling purpose for the members. He states: “Culture is a set of living relationships working toward a shared goal. It is not something you are……it’s something you do.”
It is a good read, and I wanted to share some of the points he makes:
Individuals (in organizations) aren’t really individuals. They’re more like musicians in a jazz quartet, forming a web of unconscious actions and reactions to complement the others in the group.
Words are noise. Group performance depends on behavior that communicates one powerful overarching idea - we are safe and connected.
Signals of belonging are critical in a culture. Many signals don’t take much time to deliver, but they make a huge difference because they create a foundation of psychological safety that builds connection and identity.
One misconception about highly successful cultures is that they are happy, lighthearted places. This is mostly not the case. They are energized and engaged, but at their core their members are oriented less around achieving happiness than around solving hard problems together.
Frequency of interaction is key to building a culture. Certain proximity trigger huge changes in frequency of communication.
What excites me about developing vibrant cultures is that the process is not just an organizational challenge, but applies everywhere. In fact, the most important culture you can nurture is your own family. All these principles apply there as much as they do in a formal organization.
So think about these 3 skill areas - building safety, sharing vulnerability, and establishing a purpose. How can you nurture these elements in your very own family!