Picture this

A middle aged man or woman is dressed in a suit sitting sipping a latte at Jimmy’s in the in Queen St Mall.  A Hipster struts in, Apple Mac laptop, iPhone and iPad at the ready.

The suit says to the Hipster, our organization needs to create a culture. What can you do for us? The Hipster (who has no real idea of how to create a culture) spits out a spiel something along these lines..

I can create really cool graphics and write some really catchy slogans that everyone will love.

STOP RIGHT THERE!

Therein lies the problem with big corporations and culture. Let me explain why.

In the book Rework, there is a chapter on culture. And this is what it has to say about it.

"Instant cultures are artificial cultures. They’re big bangs made up of mission statements, declarations and rules. They are obvious, ugly, and plastic"

See where I am heading with this? Well it then goes on to say:

"Culture is the by-product of consistent behavior"

Mmm not exactly what the suit was looking for. He just wants a quick fix to this whole culture thing.

The latte sipping suit for some reason knows that it is imperative for his organization to have a culture. Let’s at least give him credit for working that bit out.  All he wants to do though is make the problem (because that is all it is too him) go away.

He doesn’t realize that the part where the culture develops may be messy, and he is going to have to get his hands dirty if he really wants a true culture. And that is because, and again I quote Rework.

"You can’t install a culture. Like a fine Scotch you have got to give it time to develop"

This is why big corporations don’t have real cultures. The suit at the top is either too lazy to put the time and effort into helping it develop, or he just don’t have the people skills to pull it off.

The suit just wants an instant culture so that he can go back to his board and say look what I have done. I created a culture.  Then he can go back to his jet setting lifestyle, golf games and alcohol induced lunches smug with himself that he is so smart.

So that is the problem, what you really want to know is what is the answer. Right?

I can’t cover it all in this one post. But I can get you started on your way to a real culture today. Just by reading this post you have a far better understanding of culture than 90% (maybe more) of your competition.

I know you are busy and want to get started developing a culture within your business today, so here is what you should do. Get yourself a copy of Rework and start reading it. That’s it.

Want to read some more of my thoughts on culture? Good I was hoping you would say yes.

This is just the first post in a series I am going to do on creating a real culture within your organization. In the ensuing posts I am going to give you quick practical steps that you can use immediately, to create the culture that you crave within your business.

To ensure that you don’t miss any of these posts, here is what you need to do.

Below this article is a box that looks exactly like this

You can’t see it in this picture, but where the blue arrow is there is a button the says follow. Once you are following me you will get sent an update by this site that will let you know when I post the next article on culture.

Want to read more right now? Even better.  You can read a previous post on here called True Colors, why my foul mouth makes my business more money than anything else.

I didn’t realize it when I wrote the post, but it is also about culture.

Speak soon, Beanie