What is culture?
According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, culture can be defined as "the set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices that characterizes an institution or organization." Essentially, it's us, and in today's modern workforces, culture has the ability to be good or bad. It's become a key part of a company's successes, failures and its ability to mitigate conflict.
So, how do we protect ourselves from creating negative company cultures? How do we ensure that our teams, staff and community better see themselves in the systems that comprise our businesses and organizations? Those are the exact questions The Culturati Summit is on a mission to answer.
Hosted in Austin, Texas this past weekend, The Culturati Summit is an annual convening of thought leaders and corporate culture-shapers (now in its fourth year) explores the practical elements that comprise a company's culture. Featuring panel discussions, workshops and conversations from some of the world's largest companies, this year's lineup saw leaders from H-E-B, Levi Strauss, Twitter and Target, each offering their thoughts on culture at-scale, diversity, equity and inclusion and the constraints of communication. The day's keynotes included a conversation on creating new cultures of trust after sexual assault with Alamo Drafthouse Founder and CEO Tim League, a discussion on diversity, equity and inclusion as a tool for community-building and revenue with Candi Castlebury Singleton (VP of Intersectionality, Diversity and Culture at Twitter) and Caroline Wanga (Chief Diversity Officer and VP of Human Resources at Target), as well as a conversation between Mayerland Harris (VP of HR at H-E-B), Elizabeth Owen (Senior Director of Internal Communication at Levi Strauss & Co) and Grace Zuncic (SVP of People at Chobani) on communicating a company's values overtime. Here are five key insights I gleaned from these conversations.
1.) Culture is top-down.
It's not uncommon to see a complete disconnect between a company's staff and its leadership. For example, if transparency is meant to be a value shared by staff, it should be modeled by leadership. The culture of an organization—and the design of that organization—from top to bottom should reflect the company's goals, values and ethics. In League's morning keynote, this issue was listed as one of the key factors that contributed to the company's issues with sexual harassment and sexual assault claims in 2017.
2.) A positive company culture requires communication.
Although seemingly intangible, maintaining a consistent culture across teams requires communication. During the keynote panel on articulating a company's values, Harris (VP of HR at H-E-B) demonstrated H-E-B's approach to their values. For example, at H-E-B, the leadership teams consider all employees partners. This belief impacts their approach to benefits, aiding employees in times of crisis and the company's general code of conduct overall. Throughout the day, speakers implored attendees to ask themselves: How are the values of your company or group articulated both internally and externally? How does this translate into the way the company conducts business? What actions reflect the company's culture?
3.) Your stakeholders, community and staff should have avenues for feedback around the company's culture.
Beyond communicating the culture of a company, it's important to collect feedback from your customers, employees and community on the company's authenticity and blind spots. Your stakeholders should feel involved and they should be part of creating the culture behind your organization. Both Wanga (Chief Diversity Officer and VP of Human Resources at Target) and Singleton (VP of Intersectionality, Diversity and Culture at Twitter) touched on this when exploring their experience leading teams dedicated to diversity, equity and inclusion. They argued that diverse and inclusive leadership extends beyond tokenized hiring and simple representation. It means collecting feedback, empowering employees and questioning who the company's products, culture and operations are designed for.
4.) When someone violates a code of conduct or does not align with the culture, there should be accountability and dialogue.
Maintaining a positive company culture requires holding each other accountable to the culture and its values. If you're continually dismissing issues of culture, the culture of your company and its values will erode over time. Your staff and community will lose faith and belief in the culture you're attempting to design, too. In League's keynote, he explained that simply having a code of conduct around sexual assault and harassment for staff and theatre patrons was not enough. Employees needed to see accountability when these actions occurred and needed to know how to respond and handle them.
5.) Regularly assess and audit your company culture.
Throughout each discussion, every keynote speaker reiterated that fostering a positive company culture has no destination (Wanga even challenged the audience to consider placing their top performers as leaders of departments focused on diversity, inclusion and culture). The systems and social attitudes that comprise your company's character will need ongoing maintenance and that maintenance is work. As your company grows and your staff changes, your values and policies may need to be reviewed and changed on a regular basis, too.
