Corporate Culture Consulting: It May Be A Matter of Life and Death
“Who we are cannot be separated from where we’re from--and when we ignore that fact, planes crash.” -- Boeing Flight Safety Engineer
This conclusion is the result of studying generational influences on decision-making and risk management embedded in our DNA. Its influence explains the success of Jewish immigrants to New York City at the turn of the century; the murder rate in Harlan County Kentucky at 16 times the national average in the 1800s; and the greater number of airline disasters piloted by personnel from countries with higher Power Distance Indexes.
In his book, Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell (watch this link, it makes some important related points) helps us understand the story behind the story of outlier events and outlier success stories. In the book, he presents his well-researched findings in easy-to-understand language. He makes an important discovery that we in our family businesses can take from as we develop our corporate cultures.
Believe it or not, our cultural legacies can influence our default response to circumstances. In the 1960s and 1970s, Dutch psychologist Geert Hofstede worked in human resources for IBM. His job was to travel the world interviewing employees to gain useful insights for IBM. One of the results of Hofstede’s work was “Hofstede’s Dimensions” today’s most widely used reference on cross cultural psychology. How we respond to events, how we assess risk, how we process information is not disconnected entirely from our ancestry. I know, I know! I’m on the brink of losing you at this point but stay with me. The book is rich in data that supports the case that my great, great, great, great, great grandfather from the Scottish Highlands may indeed influence how thoughtful or reactive I’m likely to be in any given set of circumstances. He illustrates convincingly how your great, great, great, great, great grandmother from France has imbued you with a different set of approaches to the same set of stimuli. I share these thoughts because they have implications for us in our family businesses.
Transition to Corporate Culture
The culture of our organizations can similarly have ramifications that either work for us or against us. This is why it is so important to develop our corporate culture intentionally. In the absence of this intentionality, the culture that evolves, may not be the one best aligned with your mission.
To illustrate, let’s start by defining corporate culture within our family businesses. It’s basically “the way we do things around here”. More precisely, “the way we behave around here”. Behavior in the aggregate, it turns out, is the best determinant for defining culture.
In our organization we have identified a number of behaviors that we believe are critical to our mission. We’ve gone on to define them so each member of the team is not interpreting them based on their own set of cultural biases. Rather, we prefer that they adhere to a definition that aligns with the context of our business. Speaking Straight is one such behavior. We define it as: “Speak honestly in a way that moves the action forward. Make clear and direct requests. Say what you mean. Be willing to ask questions, share ideas or raise issues that may cause conflict when it is necessary for team success. Address issues directly with those who are involved or affected.”
Let’s go back to the opening statement. Researchers found that overwhelmingly the root cause for airline disasters was not mechanical failure, but rather miscommunication. Think about that and then think about the issues in your business that can be traced to poor communication. Furthermore, researchers found deeply embedded cultural affectations at the heart of the communication process and its effectiveness or ineffectiveness. Hofstede’s text, “Culture’s Consequences”, introduces the notion of the Power Distance Index (PDI) and the role culture plays in where your country of origin registers on the index. Position is neither good nor bad but it does inform communication styles rooted in cultures. This has enormous implications for circumstances that are urgent or simply important whether in the operating room or cockpit where life hangs in the balance.
Speaking Straight takes the guesswork out of communication. It gives permission to be clear and where clarity remains murky…ask questions until it is not. Here in the West, we have what linguists call a “transmitter orientation”. It is considered the responsibility of the speaker to communicate ideas clearly and unambiguously. This is not the case universally. Many cultures have a high PDI and adhere to a strict hierarchical communication process that is deferential to authority. Discovering the impact this deference had on communication within the cockpit was the catalyst for wholesale changes in training that have made global airline travel much safer today.
The discoveries Hofstede made and the examples Gladwell shares are not irrelevant findings to those of us who run companies. They provide important insights into how we can refine our organizations and in so doing gain a sustainable competitive advantage.
Let us know if we can help you with corporate culture consulting here in Tampa. We guarantee it will add a dimension of performance that will improve your profitability. And that’s as unambiguous as it gets.