Rise of Work-for-Culture
As the second wave tapers down, we are witnessing lockdowns being lifted and businesses announcing plans to bring employees back into the office. Given the time spent in isolation and the ensuing Zoom fatigue, the transition back to office should not be a concern.
Instead, we are hearing stories of resistance as people are not ready to give up the privilege. The freedom to chalk out one’s own routine, socialising with family/friends, managing household chores, children’s education — all leading to a healthy work-life balance.
Quitting is the norm rather than return to the office
The old-school mindset of ‘seeing is believing’ has a profound impact on the trust aspect. Trust and mutual respect are the cornerstones of any relationship, the employee and the employer's relationship is no different.
If we look beyond the noise, we discover that the organisation culture plays a key role in building trust. So, what does culture really mean? Culture is the character and personality of an organisation. It is what makes an organisation unique and is the sum of its values, traditions, beliefs, behaviours, and attitudes.
Through this article, I am contextualising two key aspects which are central to the future of work from an organisation cultural point of view.
1 | Conduct personifies organisation culture
Over the past two decades of my professional life, I have had the pleasure and privilege of working with some amazing organisations, and have fond memories from each of them. My first real brush with a large organisation was Wipro in the early 2000s. I still cherish that time and in essence, it laid the foundation of what I am today.
The organisation culture played a major role in nurturing my raw skill-set and continuously upskilling me through a slew of programs that were focused, both on professional and personal development. I have outlined some of the initiatives below that not only benefited me but were organisation-wide. This may sound obvious now, but in the early 2000s, these were unique.
- Fast-tracking career progression for supervisors through interventions such as a management development program
- Involving cross-functional team to undertake Six Sigma projects, that included training, mentoring and certification process
- Opportunity to transition across projects and subsidiaries through internal job postings
Manager and culture
A positive workplace culture attracts talent, drives engagement, impacts performance and improves the retention of employees. The pandemic in a way has exposed the organisation culture en-masse. This is also where the evergreen saying comes to the fore. “People leave managers and not the organisation.” That’s where I believe that conduct personifies organisation culture.
The bottom line is, a manager is a conduit between the management and employees. They are the layer that softens the blow while making people accountable and making the leadership aware of what happens on the ground.
Based on my understanding, I categorise managers under 3 personas:
1. Preachers: “I can read people. I don’t need people to tell me.”
2. Philosophers: “We are destined to work together, does not matter if people stay or leave”
3. Enablers: “It’s okay you goofed up. Clean up and learn from it.”
Very often, the first two manager personas are caught off-guard when an employee decides to leave. They take the decision on a very personal level and start behaving in a hostile manner — irrespective of the tenure of the employee. This is primarily a defence mechanism used to hide their failure of forming an empathic bond with their subordinates — always a one-way street.
If you like the similarities, you also need to respect the differences. — Anonymus
It’s a no brainer that the third persona is the most preferred one, as this persona provides a conducive environment for the subordinates to grow and learn along the way. You often find that when such a manager leaves, there is a knock-on effect on the stability of the team — accelerated attrition.
2 | “You are not the right culture fit”
This is a statement one often gets to hear, especially when trying to put across your point of view that is contrary to the accepted norm (manager speak). This often gets termed as ‘conflict’. Indeed, conflict as a word has a negative connotation, but when you look at it in a contextual manner it is not often negative.
The time which we are in today warrants assimilation of people from diverse backgrounds and interests. When an employee expresses an opinion that is not in line with the established narrative, it is often discouraged and may lead to the employee getting reprimanded for his actions leading to a disengaged employee.
For many organisations, keeping staff engaged is an ongoing struggle. If your people are disconnected and aren’t engaged with the work they are doing, that may flow into other aspects of the work. Lack of productivity and higher turnover is the collateral damage.
Culture and diversity
A lack of diversity is the key reason and often leads to convergent thinking. People who share training and experiences tend to reach a consensus faster because they view problems the same way. However, the long-term impact is less harmonious, resulting in narrower thinking.
Culture fit is a recipe for groupthink — it weeds out diversity of thought.
— Adam Grant
Adam Grant, Wharton professor & author of ‘Originals’ nails it well. He says, “Hire, reward, and promote cultural contributors: the misfits, original thinkers, and disagreeable givers who stretch and enrich the culture.”
Building teams with different skill sets and life experiences requires intention. A simple act of listening to a point of view by suspending any inherent biases is a step in the right direction. It truly creates an environment that is conducive and encourages people to freely air their point of view without any fear.
Positive conflict is the key
A sports manager is a great example. They rarely coach the players, yet play a critical role in enabling the teams. They actively manage egos and conflicts (not a rarity among players), leading to eventual success.
In conclusion
The genesis of the modern-day workplace lies in the assembly line model, where individuals work in departments or teams, and each of their work is cut out. There is a strong urge to revert to the staus-quo and the debate around return to office is a case in point.
The current pandemic has acted as a catalyst in the organisation pushing them beyond the hierarchy based decision-making to a decentralised process. This once-in-a-lifetime opportunity must not be wasted and conscious efforts have to be taken to redesign a composite work culture.
I work with organisations in their quest for developing an innovation culture and the design-led co-creative approach is the bedrock of this transition. This approach is focused on enabling an organisation to break down the silos and deploy a cross-functional team to improve the efficacy of its processes and offerings. It also encourages individuals to mould themselves in a T-shaped personality, which in turn reduces friction and misalignments.
To sum up, organisation culture design goes beyond mere lip service. It doesn’t take much time to take culture at face value and turn it into a group-think, which discourages any contrarian views. This is where the need for reprogramming managers arises as they are the synapses in the nervous system of any organisation.
What are your thoughts on this? Would love to hear them.
Until next time!
~ Sajid
(Sajid is a Strategy Consultant operating at the intersection of human behaviour, business design and innovation strategy. He tweets @sajidkhetani.)
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