Culture Matters: Our Insights From the Culture Conversations
Conversation is an essential component and competence in creating & managing organizational culture within a team, project, company or organization. We believe conversation is just as important in the wider community, between individuals from different backgrounds, between different organizations and sectors, and in society at large. We need to reflect together on what kind of companies, projects, environments we want to work and live in, which is also to say what kind of cultures we want to create.
In inevitable changes within companies and organizations to operate in a more sustainable, inclusive and collaborative way, organizational culture is the one that will – or will not – support them in defining, building and maintaining them. The importance of culture is not wishful thinking or something to put aside for calmer times. Its vital role is proved by our years of experience and backed up by Gallup data (and other). But not just any culture - we believe this role belongs to the culture of purpose and care, as we describe in the Community Shapers Playbook: A toolbox for developing better futures. In the book, we laid the foundations for the role of the culture architect - a role that builds, enhances, makes sense of and spreads the culture of purpose and care.
With all this in mind, we started the BB series of Culture Conversations, dedicated each month to a different question about organizational culture. Together with you, we want to think about, make sense of and reflect on what the role of the Culture Architect is, who it is, how they work in practice, what their competencies are and what their mandate is.
Below, we present you with some of the insights from the first three episodes and sincerely thank everyone who took part in these inspiring exchanges, building better cultures & futures, one conversation at a time!
I. Organizational culture: From a culture of fear to beauty
Our first Culture Conversation focused on the question of what organizational culture actually is, which also spilled over into the question of why even invest in strengthening culture in teams, companies and organizations in the first place. We also embraced the spontaneous co-creation of the moment with our participants and connected the questioning of culture with art, their common points and strengths.
BB team & BB community believe in the purpose of, if not saving, then at least improving the world. We recognize the role of companies in how they choose to develop & what kind of culture they build, or more plainly, their role in how we live and feel as people.
During the conversation, we thought about an interesting contrast. We are noticing the weakening of the sense for creating & experiencing, appreciating art and beauty as such. We also wonder how much we can still express ourselves within organizations and the society. At the same time, we know companies value and search for creativity skills more and more. But fear, anxiety, the pressure of productivity and efficiency cripple the creative sense as well as our well-being.
We asked ourselves: Could companies maybe make room for art and creating? Do they have a role in supporting the arts just as they do in supporting and caring for their immediate and wider community? And an even deeper possible thought: what are the secret powers, the role of art in enabling and realizing changes in systems?
The art’s potential transformational (or disruptive) power is remarkably parallel to the power that organizational culture has on the processes and operations within an organization. Culture is based on values, relationships, rituals & it also has its invisible part. It is shared, pervasive, enduring and implicit (HRB, The Leader’s guide to Corporate Culture). This means that we can feel and respond to the culture we cultivate in companies, just like we respond to a work of art.
We concluded our reflection with a challenge:
How can art help build and support a culture of purpose and care? What systems, competences, skills and management approaches do we need for this?
What do you think: is or should art be among the culture architect’s tools?
Our cards The Shapers are another fun and effective tool for shaping your own or the future of your team – just start playing!
II. Culture Washing
The second Culture Conversation revolved around the question of culture washing. Can we always believe statements about positive organizational culture? How do we even define a good culture? And, how can we really know whether the culture in a company or organization is good or bad?
Culture is everything that surrounds us, both people, their relationships & the systems and processes they are co-creating. Yet, we know culture isn't inherently good which is why we need a cultural shift towards cultures of purpose and care and culture architects for setting up systems and processes that support this shift.
Organizational culture can be abused or have strong backlashes when it remains at a declarative level or it doesn't align with systems & processes, so we need to actively work on building and practicing culture in our projects and organizations. And never forget that culture is something we all need to pay attention to and be accountable for, because we build it together – #weareallculturearchitects.
We reflected on indicator of respect in a culture could be time and space we set aside in processes and systems for dialogue and feedback. We therefore recognized we must integrate a dedicated time for conversation into our systems and processes – that is: actively implement culture through conversations. We also touched upon how advertising positive culture is often a part of the recruitment strategy - acknowledging that, if the employer wants people to really believe the declarations and stay, the company must build on the promise with actions.
Thus, we co-created our final thought:
what truly reflects care in a culture is sincerity.
What do you think: how can we nurture sincere care in our projects and organizations?
III. Culture Conversation with dr. Aleš Ugovšek: “We weave culture into everything we do”
For the summer episode of Culture Conversations, we visited our friend in Žiri, dr. Aleš Ugovšek , director of the company M SORA . In a sparkling dialogue, we were happy to listen to his leadership experiences and thoughts on organizational culture, its definition and role in sustainable development & change management and much more. And we answered, to the best of our abilities, his challenging questions about the BB model of culture architect: what exactly is a good culture architect and where do we look for one? What are their competences? Why invest in the role at all?
Sustainability challenges require a lot of changes from the management and everyone else involved, and as Aleš Ugovšek rightly affirms: “Changes are conditioned by a change in the company's culture. If you want to change the company's culture, you have to know how to communicate it very well, and before anything else, live it yourself." The agents of change are, first and foremost, the director and managers: "Leaders are the ones who stir, create the culture. From them everything goes on to the rest of the colleagues."
He also gave us a brilliantly simple definition of what sustainability looks like for their company which last year celebrated its 75-year anniversary: “Sustainability means that, at the 100th anniversary of M SORA, we will still be here, in good condition, with healthy people and in a healthy environment.” One of the company values is common sense (#zdravakmečkapamet), grounding their ambition & guiding their respect and sense of community. It’s the one that connects them all and resonates well among their partners and in their immediate environment as well.
Uršula and Anja from the BB team complemented his thoughts on the role of culture in change management: "If we want to address sustainability, we will need cultures of purpose and care. We will have to realize that we are all actively contributing to some common good, and we will have to start nurturing relationships with everyone."
And what is the role of a culture architect in all this? “It’s someone who protects that which connects us, so that we don't stray away from it and we all actively create our values." To fulfill this role and actively spread the awareness to everyone, they absolutely need the mandate and trust of the management, the director. They also have to possess or learn and be ready to master different skills, the operational as well as the softer, relational ones. We developed the culture architect’s competencies model in our Community Shapers Playbook - and we are happy to add that in June, the BB model received the bronze Innovation Award 2024 from the Slovenian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
We leave you with one final thought on why culture matters and is worth investing our time and resources in:
"Reducing the risks that change brings, that's what culture gives us."
For many more insights, check out the conversation on our YouTube Channel.
What do you think: what is the role of organizational culture and culture architect within the project, company, organization? How can they support sustainable development?
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Manager of innovative processes, experience in designing brands, products and services.
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