Culture eats Strategy for Breakfast
I've been reading a lot about management and leadership over the last little while. I realize I have been surrounded by a lot of managers throughout my life and few leaders.
When you do any research about management, you can't help read about the legendary Peter Drucker. He was probably the first actual management consultant. In addition, an educator and author whose writings have significantly contributed to the philosophical and practical foundations of modern business. His first book was 1954 and he passed in 2004. He has stood the course of time and his works are as relevant today as they always have been. His teaching bridge the generations because they are so profound yet so full of common sense.
To give you a flavor, here are 10 Drucker quotes that may change your life in business:
1. "Doing the right thing is more important than doing the thing right."
2. "If you want something new, you have to stop doing something old."
3. "There is nothing quite so useless as doing with great efficiency something that should not be done at all."
4. "What gets measured gets improved."
5. "Results are gained by exploiting opportunities, not by solving problems."
6. "So much of what we call management consists of making it difficult for people to work."
7. "People who don't take risks generally make about two big mistakes a year. People who do take risks generally make about two big mistakes a year."
8. "Meetings are by definition a concession to a deficient organization. For one either meets or one works. Once can not do both at the same time."
9. "Long-range planning does not deal with the future decisions, but with the future of present decisions."
10. "Management is doing things right. Leadership is doing the right things."
Profound, right? Yet, simple common sense that is not common practice.
But, that is not my favorite quote. The original quote, that I have modified is, "culture eats strategy for breakfast, technology for lunch, and products for dinner, and soon thereafter everything else too." Let's just stick with culture eating strategy for breakfast.
People are trained to believe that corporate culture doesn't matter. We have been led to believe that a Vision, a Mission Statement, and Corporate Values is all that is mattered. From this, a Strategic Plan is formed. The corporate culture then becomes a reflection of the Vision, Mission, and Values.
It really doesn't work out that way. Without a corporate culture, there is really nothing to unite the employees in common goals. They have no unity to fight the good fight for the corporation. Corporate culture develops on its own when it is left to do so.
If corporations, large or small, fail to pay attention to work culture, it develops without guidance and it is usually negative. You can have all the fancy brochures and products you want, but if you don't have a committed workforce doing the actual work, you will not succeed.
People study Toyota as a particular success story in building a positive company culture that works. One of the things that they do, is that if any employee finds a problem on the assembly line, they have the power to stop the line. That is a lot of power. That tells every employee that they are all equally important. And, they encourage problems. Only through identifying problems can the company solve them.
Lots of companies credit their success to developing the following culture. You can't complain here. This does't mean that you won't find problems, but, what it does mean, that if you find something to complain about, you must find a solution. Problems are a great opportunity to find solutions. Everyone owns the process. No egos exist. Very hard to develop that culture and there has to be a lot of commitment to making it work, but it will pay off in spades in the long run.
Leo Gerstner, CEO of IBM, said at the end of his tenure: "I came to see in my time at IBM that culture isn't just one aspect of the game - it is the game. In the end an organzation is nothing more than the collective capacity of its people to create value."
Vision, Mission, and Values are important. But, if you are not actively engaging in developing workplace culture, your success will be limited. The employees must see that their Management lives the values before they will be committed in jumping aboard.
Here is a new common sense idea. Before engaging in a meeting to decide something, determine what the actual cost of the decision to your bottom line. Determine the cost/hour of your decision. Then, you should have no more than the salaries put together of the cost of this decision. This may mean that 4 people are going to meet to make a decision rather than 12. Work culture will then reflect the value of people's time.
A true leader does the right thing. Leaders lead by doing and demonstrating common sense as common practice.
When you do any research about management, you can't help read about the legendary Peter Drucker. He was probably the first actual management consultant. In addition, an educator and author whose writings have significantly contributed to the philosophical and practical foundations of modern business. His first book was 1954 and he passed in 2004. He has stood the course of time and his works are as relevant today as they always have been. His teaching bridge the generations because they are so profound yet so full of common sense.
To give you a flavor, here are 10 Drucker quotes that may change your life in business:
1. "Doing the right thing is more important than doing the thing right."
2. "If you want something new, you have to stop doing something old."
3. "There is nothing quite so useless as doing with great efficiency something that should not be done at all."
4. "What gets measured gets improved."
5. "Results are gained by exploiting opportunities, not by solving problems."
6. "So much of what we call management consists of making it difficult for people to work."
7. "People who don't take risks generally make about two big mistakes a year. People who do take risks generally make about two big mistakes a year."
8. "Meetings are by definition a concession to a deficient organization. For one either meets or one works. Once can not do both at the same time."
9. "Long-range planning does not deal with the future decisions, but with the future of present decisions."
10. "Management is doing things right. Leadership is doing the right things."
Profound, right? Yet, simple common sense that is not common practice.
But, that is not my favorite quote. The original quote, that I have modified is, "culture eats strategy for breakfast, technology for lunch, and products for dinner, and soon thereafter everything else too." Let's just stick with culture eating strategy for breakfast.
People are trained to believe that corporate culture doesn't matter. We have been led to believe that a Vision, a Mission Statement, and Corporate Values is all that is mattered. From this, a Strategic Plan is formed. The corporate culture then becomes a reflection of the Vision, Mission, and Values.
It really doesn't work out that way. Without a corporate culture, there is really nothing to unite the employees in common goals. They have no unity to fight the good fight for the corporation. Corporate culture develops on its own when it is left to do so.
If corporations, large or small, fail to pay attention to work culture, it develops without guidance and it is usually negative. You can have all the fancy brochures and products you want, but if you don't have a committed workforce doing the actual work, you will not succeed.
People study Toyota as a particular success story in building a positive company culture that works. One of the things that they do, is that if any employee finds a problem on the assembly line, they have the power to stop the line. That is a lot of power. That tells every employee that they are all equally important. And, they encourage problems. Only through identifying problems can the company solve them.
Lots of companies credit their success to developing the following culture. You can't complain here. This does't mean that you won't find problems, but, what it does mean, that if you find something to complain about, you must find a solution. Problems are a great opportunity to find solutions. Everyone owns the process. No egos exist. Very hard to develop that culture and there has to be a lot of commitment to making it work, but it will pay off in spades in the long run.
Leo Gerstner, CEO of IBM, said at the end of his tenure: "I came to see in my time at IBM that culture isn't just one aspect of the game - it is the game. In the end an organzation is nothing more than the collective capacity of its people to create value."
Vision, Mission, and Values are important. But, if you are not actively engaging in developing workplace culture, your success will be limited. The employees must see that their Management lives the values before they will be committed in jumping aboard.
Here is a new common sense idea. Before engaging in a meeting to decide something, determine what the actual cost of the decision to your bottom line. Determine the cost/hour of your decision. Then, you should have no more than the salaries put together of the cost of this decision. This may mean that 4 people are going to meet to make a decision rather than 12. Work culture will then reflect the value of people's time.
A true leader does the right thing. Leaders lead by doing and demonstrating common sense as common practice.
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