Only culture can position you to win

It’s amazing how many leaders and organizations today still think that having a desirable “culture” is something they can declare into existence. Like it’s a project with a start and end date, they may say, “This is the year of culture!” Many still confuse culture with motivation (“Let’s bring in a motivational speaker and get everyone riled up!”) and/or incentives (“Let’s give them a chance to earn a ton of money and they’ll love us!”) and/or ping-pong tables in the break room (“Let’s make it fun, fun, fun!”). It’s still thought of by many as an “HR-thing” and, far too infrequently, incorporated into the strategic decisions made by the c-suite.

While there can be an element of each of those components in your culture—and you should have a discussion about the role of each one (especially the ping-pong tables😊)—culture has to be organic and inclusive; it has to build over time to be deep, rich and lasting; and there is no finish line. You can’t adopt someone else’s culture ... even though their HR exec just gave a great presentation at the conference you attended. Your culture has to come from your heart and soul. It must be part of the fabric of who you are and why you do what you do.

At a macro and micro level, leaders will often conduct a team meeting on Monday morning that inspires their team and brings them together, only to have the energy dissipated by Tuesday afternoon and the environment completely reverted back to pre-meeting levels by EOD Wednesday. Words and activities alone don’t make a culture (although, as you’ll see below, they do play an important role). It’s words buttressed by actions, processes, and consistent behaviors that make and sustain a culture. Yes, you can chant a mantra, but it’s what you do and how you do it after the chanting ends that makes all the difference.

Like so many aspects of your business, the first step in creating that desired culture is to have a plan. And while curiosity, flexibility, and an openness to change are vital to success as you grow your culture, your plan and, especially, your vision become the guardrails that’ll help keep you on the right track. Like a beacon and north star, your culture must be at the center of everything you do. Hyperbolic, maybe, but there’s never been a better time than now to build your organization around your culture than the other way around.

Following are four of the most critical steps to accomplish that—a culture that’ll attract the best members and staff and become the differentiator that’ll position you to thrive long into the future:

When you hear that the culture needs to be “organic”, we mean that it must grow from within. As stated previously, you can’t adopt someone else’s culture. True, you can learn from other’s cultures, but your culture must be a blend of their best practices and what you want to be known for (today and tomorrow).

A valuable step in this process is to include as many people as possible in the formulation of your culture components. In the spirit of being organic, it must grow from the ground up, not from the top down. In this instance, the CEO’s ideas are only as significant as the lowest person on the totem pole. Gathering all ideas and feelings, and perspectives will allow you to produce a culture maximized in thoroughness but, equally important, one where commitment can also be maximized.

When everyone is bought-in, alignment can follow. Strategic and tactical plans should be aligned with your culture; business decisions will be made in support of your culture; knowledge, skill, and behavior development will all be tethered to how you’ve defined your culture and priorities. Guardrails, north star, heart … whatever metaphor you choose, your organization is aligned by your organic culture.

We stated above how important it is to include all staff in the formulation of your culture. But how do you keep them included? One significant way is to position each one of them to know how to live your culture. Day-in and day-out, knowing precisely how to live it is vital Make it palatable and discernable. Correlate actions with desired outcomes. That means defining behaviors.

Even after including them in the creation of your culture, employees may still have different ideas about how to live it. For some, the confusion could be with priorities; for others, it may be definition; still others, it’s about behaviors. As a people-leader, it’s your job to clear up all confusion and get everyone crystal-clear on what they should prioritize, how they should define it, and the manner in which they should be behaving.

Think of answering these questions:

It’s that level of specificity that positions everyone—from the very top to the very bottom—to live your culture consistently and most effectively.

Another issue about culture that comes up in conversations with leaders is they think it floats in and out, almost without reason. Sometimes they feel it, other times they don’t; sometimes it’s present, other times it’s not. For whatever reason, their culture is nebulous or like a tide lapping at the shore. Decisions get made in a vacuum and people perform in ways contrary to what’s desired.

One way to mitigate this frustration is to focus on your cultural processes. The process is predictable and that predictability makes it comforting and comfortability allows people to perform in the manner they should. It doesn’t mean that everyone is a minion, void of personality and uniqueness; it means there are habits formed and a standard you live by. Core values are an ingredient in this but, like the previous bullet point, it gets down to the literal execution of those core values.

Change can be exhausting, individually and collectively. But change with a clear purpose can be digestible and enriching. Change that is hitched to an extraordinary culture can keep people on board. And change that is methodical and deliberate can instill confidence and steel staff’s buy-in and support. This type of change takes time; it can’t happen overnight. There’s no switch to flip. But it’s the journey that, over time, embeds your culture in everything you do and every way in which you do it.

In the same spirit as “this can’t happen overnight”, creating the highly desirable culture like we’ve been discussing has no finish line. We can certainly establish goals and objectives and have visions and characteristics of the future, but you never really get there—you’re never really finished. Celebrate the successful steps along the way but never celebrate victory. Be proud of your progress but remain hungry for continued maturation.

While the finish line doesn’t exist, mile markers along the way definitely need to be identified. For the change to continue and the behaviors and alignment to be solidified, you need to assess your progress. Demonstrating to yourself, your team, and key stakeholders requires validation that the culture needle has, in fact, been moved in a positive direction. However, this can be challenging, particularly in the financial services world where everything else we do seems to be quantified. Frankly, there’s no one good way to measure culture—it’s an algorithm of multiple measurements, some tangible, some intangible. (By itself, this can be the topic for a whole different article!)

Oddly, the ambiguity around measurement and the seemingly endless pursuit of a desired future state can be a very unifying thing for your entire organization. It can keep every team member focused on the specific definition, behaviors, and process that makes up your culture and requires everyone to hold themselves and each other accountable to doing what needs to be done to continue to move that proverbial needle of success. Celebrate wins; identify do-overs; all in the spirit of living your culture.

In today’s business environment, standing out from the crowd has never been more challenging. How to serve multiple generations, at once. How to employ multiple generations, at once. Just when you get your arms around technology, AI comes along. The bar for delivery performance has never been higher and the definition for experiences has never been harder to achieve. You’ve never had more competitors and they all offer the same products and services you do. So, how can you possibly standout from the crowd?

There’s only one answer: your culture. It’s the only thing that someone else can’t copy. It’s the only thing that can impact everything you do. It’s the only thing that will position you to attract and retain the best members and employees. No other investment you make—today or tomorrow—can accomplish all this.

Now’s the time to create this type of culture at your credit union. Visit fi-strategies.com/contact/ and let us know how we can help.