People_process_tech_culture_wp-scaledOver the years many have touted the importance of people, process and technology. Most of us would agree that process and technology are important and people are priceless. So how does culture fit in? Recently I was speaking to a friend about how our American culture is so fast pace. Some of us are willing to stay up all night, stand in long lines, and pay a premium price for a new phone. Think about when you see a smart phone commercial, who is the audience? Listen to the background music, what sort of vibe is it sending? Check out the imagery, characters, and how they hype up the capabilities. What are they really marketing? Are the marketers pushing a culture of being hip, cool, maybe even impatience? We may have different answers and interpretations, but we know that the marketers are intentional and hopeful of you joining their mobile culture movement.

Culture is the beliefs, values attitudes and behaviors of a group of people.

  1. Culture is foundational, but is it driven from the top down or bottom up? Some will say both. Leaders will often drive corporate culture from the top down and support subcultures from the bottom up as long as the subcultures stay in alignment with the core components of the corporate culture.
  2. It helps to recruit people who are like-minded, coachable and approachable. It’s the leaders and team members who own,build and market the culture. These everyday champions of culture are critical to the cultural ecosystem and they typically support leadership, as long as the leadership team reflect what they expect.
  3. If your people are struggling with a process, will they disengage or will a leader (regardless of title) step up to arrange a meeting to troubleshoot the process bottleneck? Well, it depends on the culture.
  4. Technology is great in the hands of a craftsman. The craftsman recognizes that technology is not the end game it’s a means to an end.

As leaders, how are you intentionally developing the culture within your organization?

“As the soil, however rich it may be, cannot be productive without cultivation, so the mind without culture can never produce good fruit.”
– Seneca