Studying the best practices of continuous improvements and product development approaches I resulted in that to make these practices working an organization should have a certain culture. Some people even believe that company culture is holding back transformation and investments in digital business models.
The concept of “culture” has been a buzzword in the corporate world for a while already. Generally, culture can be determined by what the company stands for and how it treats others. Each of us moves daily through numerous cultural environments, from the local community, church, to business organization. No doubt the connection to those cultures, either inspires the best within us or reduces us to average.
“Culture eats strategy for breakfast” - Peter Drucker
By this quote famous management consultant and writer Peter Drucker didn’t mean that strategy is insignificant – rather than a great and inspiring culture is a doubtless route to organizational success. Companies with a strong organizational culture always have a compass for decision-making and internal alignment. Leaders and employees easily can answer, “What comes next?” for each choice they make. But creating a flexible and innovative organizational culture never been an easy task.
Researchers identified several components of every organization culture:
Purpose
Why an organization exists except for making money.
Values
Shared believes about what is important in your organization.
Behaviors
Choices made by your employees guided by purpose and values.
Rituals
Ways how co-workers to build and strengthen relationships at work. Actions that are designed to increase employee engagement.
Cues
Reminders that help employees stay connected to the future. The most common example is the mission statement on the walls.
Recognition
When an individual or team receives appreciation as an outcome of their efforts they feel satisfied and perhaps even motivated to do it again and better.
Strong organization culture serves as a differentiating factor of a company — both internally with employees and externally with job candidates and customers. However, culture is not something static it usually changes if the purpose, mission, vision of a company evolves.