People who have worked with me will know I’m driven by several mantras.
These help challenge my thinking or approach, and keep me on-track when the world of culture starts to feel a bit too abstract.
My second mantra is “𝐍𝐨 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐨 𝐝𝐨 𝐚 𝐛𝐚𝐝 𝐣𝐨𝐛”
This doesn’t mean that bad jobs don’t happen.
But when they do, we can sometimes become caught up in our own limiting beliefs about how that bad job came about:
🐝 Too many sales discounts issued? 𝘚𝘢𝘭𝘦𝘴 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘥𝘰𝘥𝘨𝘺
🐝 Product not perfect at launch? 𝘛𝘩𝘰𝘴𝘦 𝘗𝘳𝘰𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘨𝘶𝘺𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘵𝘳𝘺𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘭𝘪𝘧𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘥
🐝 They’ve not read that email communication? 𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘺’𝘷𝘦 𝘢𝘭𝘸𝘢𝘺𝘴 𝘨𝘰𝘵 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘢 𝘤𝘪𝘨𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘦 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘮𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘴
These might be true.
But they shouldn’t be our 𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘴𝘵 thought, because no one comes to work wanting to do a bad job.
What’s driving the behaviour that we’re seeing?
Is it a reward mechanic? Leadership approach? Communication style?
These are just some of the parts that influence your culture.
Culture is not the behaviours; it sits behind behaviours, quietly informing how best to get things done.
Let’s not focus on the behaviours.
Let’s not focus on the perceived “wrong ‘uns” – the dodgy sales people; the infuriating stakeholder; the others.
Chances are that they’re not the issue…
