“How a group of people behave?”

“A feeling you use to make hiring decisions?”

I spent almost 15 years at Nike and Apple, two brands where we drank Kool-Aids, instead of beer, on Friday afternoons. The most valuable thing from all the kool-aid drinking? 

Culture needs to be “lead-able,” practical, measurable, for it to be scalable. 

I know. It’s glib. It’s easier said than done. So I want to present a definition of culture that best represents what I have witnessed at Apple and Nike:

“A culture is the unique combination of processes and priorities within an organization.” Clayton M. Christensen.

If you aren’t sure how to understand your culture, or build your company’s culture, think:

– Does my team know what our priorities are?
– Does my team know what are the communication and execution processes to achieve our priorities?

Start here. It will get you somewhere beyond the touchy feely part of culture.

* How can leadership feel less like Hallmark cards and more like LEGO instructions booklets?
* How can we make “start with why” less vague and more concrete?
* Can culture be described and built?

As I worked with people in their one of a kind circumstances, I realised the ways I related to people were limited- the Nike and Apple “talk” wasn’t clicking.

* I had to probe differently because I learned that the real practice to empathise better was to beef up our vocabulary for emotions.
* I had to come up with new stories because I realised that to some, the miracle of starting companies in garages meant the founders were rich because they owned cars.
* I learned that reflection was a wildly under-practiced skill.

I enjoy finding ways to “land the plane” at scale. I enjoy studying and tinkering with human behaviours. I love being able to walk alongside someone’s heroine/hero’s journey.

I love that while I am helping bosses #bossbetter I am becoming a better boss too.

Translation: Culture = Fluff X Actions

Let’s look at the culture of “taking ownership”/“accountability.” A concrete action to clarify this fluffy value could be:
“Bring up issues to others swiftly when things start to go FUBR*.”

Here’s a crowd favourite- “Great teamwork.”
How might great teams behave?
– They disagree and debate on ideas rather than personalities.
– When a decision is made, everyone goes all-in to execute decision, regardless of his/her initial point of view.

We can define culture “top-down” by spelling out the specific behaviours of the values and norms. We can also reconstruct culture from “the ground up” by investigating into existing behaviours:
– Managers always pick up the trash on the floor. Why? Because we take pride in being detail-oriented. 

And one of the behaviors that tells you a lot about a team is cursing:

“When do people swear? How come?”
“Is it a terminable offense? When is it not? To whom it is not?”

aka,.

What are the 2 frameworks
1. Connecting the j̶a̶r̶g̶o̶n̶s̶ dots:
* 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 sells the 𝗪𝗛𝗬
* 𝗠𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 is the 𝗪𝗛𝗔𝗧
* 𝗖𝘂𝗹𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 defines the 𝗛𝗢𝗪

⁣　Double-click⁣
⁣　Leadership is convincing the teams that they will be led to realize a meaningful vision. Leadership is helping people translate the company’s vision into their individual purposes. It is articulating “why we ought to do what we do.”⁣
⁣
⁣　Management is turning the vision into goals and tangible definitions of progress. It figures out the who, the processes, and the resources. Management makes it possible for people to spend their energy reaching these goals together. ⁣
⁣
⁣　Culture defines the norms- expected behaviours around how goals should be accomplished. It defines what is allowed, celebrated, and punished. Culture is the standards of quantity, quality, and speed. ⁣

2. Punchy 3-liners
⁣　𝗣𝗿𝗶𝗼𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗲𝘀 are 𝗪𝗛𝗬 he does it
⁣　𝗥𝗲𝘀𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗰𝗲𝘀 are 𝗪𝗛𝗔𝗧 he uses to do it 
⁣　𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗲𝘀 are 𝗛𝗢𝗪 he does it

Ok. How?
⁣　Try these at home.