The Power of Culture — Part 1 of 3, The Power of Belief
Early in my career, when we needed to change things within the company to pursue an opportunity or improve performance, we just did it. Little thought was given to how it impacted people or how it might change company perception. In retrospect, I consider myself, and the companies in which I worked, incredibly lucky that any of the changes took hold or saw success. Since my early days as a young engineer I have witnessed spectacular failures in delivering enterprise change. Some of those failures ended the companies attempting them.
I confess, I am a Boomer. I began my career in the final days of the paternal contract between caretaking companies and their lifetime employees. Additionally, we lived in a tacit agreement that the company would work in the best interests of employees and the communities in which we were placed. My first professional employer was considered the ‘it’ company for innovators. That said, even truly innovative companies moved at a deliberate pace, during my early career.
Since then, Gen X, the Millennials, and Gen Z have entered the workforce. Desktops have been replaced with laptops and mobile devices. Technology has moved from the edges to the center of our lives. Company loyalty, in either direction, has all but disappeared. Both sides are culturally expected to make employment decisions in their own best interests. Companies serve their mission. We, guns for hire, are expected to manage our own careers to our own objectives. The cadence for change and improvements has moved from deliberated, thoughtful and delivered in waves to hypersonic and constant. Technology development and use cases are moving so fast that it is hard for anyone to keep up. Those of us responsible for company development, improvement changes, and transformation live in a world of relentless flux.
Change is a high risk game. Those of use that do this sort of work seek to reduce that risk wherever possible. The first stop for anyone leading broad changes is the culture of the organization. Why? Culture seems so ethereal and, well, squishy. Whatever our work, wherever we live, culture is the water in which we swim. Because it surrounds us at all times it becomes hard to notice, unless someone is pointing it out. Yet, culture has a profound impact on the success of the changes we make, the solutions we offer, our behaviors in executing our duties. This article is the first in a three part series on culture.