When we ask CEOs, “what is culture?” there is often some hesitation.
The most common answer given is that it is a set of values that guide decision-making, behaviour and therefore outcomes.
What do employees say?
When we ask employees what the culture is like where they work, most people will readily respond with:
- “It’s great, I love coming to work” or
- “it’s toxic, I feel so anxious and stressed at work” or
- “It’s ho-hum, bland” and so on.
It’s clear that employees experience culture simply as a feeling.
When universal values (universally desired human qualities) are successfully executed within an organisation, people feel great with a compelling sense of belonging. Under these conditions, extraordinary outcomes are achieved.
What do CEOs & CFOs say?
Duke University conducted very extensive research that involved 1,900 CEOs & CFOs. And they interviewed companies representing 20% of the market capatalisation of the US stock exchanges.
They answered the question “Is Corporate Culture important?” And the answer was “Yes”. Corporate Culture was the most important value driver in the US, and either the top or a close 2nd elsewhere in the world.
They also answered the question “What is Corporate Culture?”
It’s an interesting video, so please watch it if you want to find out more about what they discovered.
Unravel the Culture Mystery
In this 4th Industrial Revolution, the value of extraordinary culture will be realised by organisations that truly want to be Champions and to achieve greatness and advantage.
So, how will you unravel the culture mystery and transform your culture, taking it from great to extraordinary?
It is very common for most companies, once they have undertaken to identify the core values they need to succeed and surveyed their staff, they find the implementation of these values almost impossible.
The main reasons for this difficulty in executing the agreed values of the Organisation is as follows:
- For a human-being to execute a value, they have to be in a positive frame of mind, a positive state of being – they have to feel good. How they feel in any given moment, determines their capacity to Execute your core values
- If their day starts off badly, and they arrive at work already irritated, they will find it impossible to treat others with respect, courtesy and kindness, even if this is a value they agreed was critically important for the success of the Organisation.
It all starts from Feelings
It all starts from Feelings
If you do not prioritise how people are feeling, you cannot transform your culture to levels greater than you ever thought possible; peak performance in the Zone.
Culture starts and ends with a great feeling. The feeling is the secret!