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 “๐๐จ ๐จ๐ง๐ ๐๐จ๐ฆ๐๐ฌ ๐ญ๐จ ๐ฐ๐จ๐ซ๐ค ๐ฐ๐๐ง๐ญ๐ข๐ง๐ ๐ญ๐จ ๐๐จ ๐ ๐๐๐ ๐ฃ๐จ๐”
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:
๐ Too many sales discounts issued? ๐๐ข๐ญ๐ฆ๐ด ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ฐ๐ฑ๐ญ๐ฆ ๐ข๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ข๐ญ๐ญ ๐ฅ๐ฐ๐ฅ๐จ๐บ
๐ Product not perfect at launch? ๐๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ด๐ฆ ๐๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฑ๐ฐ๐ด๐ช๐ต๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐จ๐ถ๐บ๐ด ๐ข๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ซ๐ถ๐ด๐ต ๐ต๐ณ๐บ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ฎ๐ข๐ฌ๐ฆ ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ณ ๐ญ๐ช๐ง๐ฆ ๐ฉ๐ข๐ณ๐ฅ
๐ They’ve not read that email communication? ๐๐ฉ๐ฆ๐บ’๐ท๐ฆ ๐ข๐ญ๐ธ๐ข๐บ๐ด ๐จ๐ฐ๐ต ๐ต๐ช๐ฎ๐ฆ ๐ง๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ข ๐ค๐ช๐จ๐ข๐ณ๐ฆ๐ต๐ต๐ฆ ๐ฃ๐ถ๐ต ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ต ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ด๐ด๐ข๐จ๐ฆ๐ด
These might be true.
But they shouldn’t be our ๐ง๐ช๐ณ๐ด๐ตย 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…
