Culture doesn’t eat strategy for breakfast

Let’s start with the elephant in the room: Peter Drucker never said, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.”

However, in an article for the Wall Street Journal in March 1991, he did say that “culture – no matter how defined – is singularly persistent.”

If we consider one definition of culture as the values, behaviours and assumptions of an organisation, Drucker’s published statement offers far more nuance. Granted, it’s not quite as soundbitey as the breakfast example, but it does provide more practical guidance. By repeating the non-existent quote, we are in danger of viewing the dynamics of organisations as being over-simplified and the result of culture alone: i.e., If we fix the culture, the strategy will follow.

Not quite accurate

As any organisational psychologist or trained culture curator will advise, this isn’t accurate. In fact, in the same article, Drucker also laments a similar frustration that “Changing the corporate culture has become the latest management fad. Every business magazine carries articles about it.”

This does seem to be a familiar trend. Any search of any business article resource will return countless examples of culture and its importance. But these are often framed as if culture change is a panacea. It’s the “biggest competitive advantage”, “the secret sauce to success” and, as one Forbes’ article claims, “you cannot connect and elevate leadership” without focusing completely on the impact and influence of culture.

These statements have some truth to them. Culture generally – and your people specifically – are the source of your biggest competitive advantage. But it’s not the whole picture and many of these resources miss a point: A corporate culture is worth absolutely nothing unless it is aligned with the company’s strategy. Why would an organisation adopt a set of values, assumptions and behaviours unless these supported its vision?

Strategy comes first

In this sense, strategy comes first. Only after we’ve clearly identified our strategy (the purpose, goals, resources, and channels) can we ask what assumptions, behaviours and values will maximise the possibilities of that strategy’s success.

Strategy sets the direction. Culture lubricates the movement toward that direction.

Culture without strategy is a slippery mess, with the resulting actions, decisions, behaviours and activities taking place being unaligned to any intention or direction. That might sound fun – indeed it often is – but ultimately it is futile and unsustainable. The business world is paved with the remains of organisations that focused on creating great places to work, but who haemorrhaged productivity, profits and efficiencies.

On the other hand, strategy without culture is a slog. It’s a gruelling hike up the mountain, in measurable pursuit of onwards and upwards; of performance and deliverables. But it barely stops to consider the impact on the hikers, their equipment, their morale, or whether this approach would encourage them to climb future mountains.

Culture is strategy’s counterweight. If one misaligns with the other, both will fall. They will eat each other for breakfast. The relationship between the two is not linear; it’s cyclical and relational. The cultural assumptions feed and push the strategic goals and they, in turn, shape and hone the strategy.

Strategy gives culture its direction; culture gives strategy its momentum.

The lesson

So, what is the lesson – besides not misquoting Drucker? Culture and Strategy are not in a linear relationship. If we make the mistake of focusing only on the one or the other, we risk the organisation. If we aim at keeping them both in lock step, they can become invaluable guides to what is going right – or wrong.

If your once revolutionary company is falling behind in innovation, rather than wondering why the competition is out innovating you, it enables you to ask, “What assumptions have changed and what has my strategy evolved into?”

Approaching culture as something that trumps strategy, we miss a vital point. Culture is built on our foundational assumptions about our roles and purposes in our world. They, in turn, demand certain behaviours and values to fulfil those roles and purposes.

The organisation is an eagle, with one wing being culture and the other strategy. Only when they are balanced, contributing equally and working together do we soar.