From Buzzwords to Belonging: Making Culture Real Again

From Buzzwords to Belonging: Making Culture Real Again

Given only 31% of HR leaders believe their current organisational culture effectively drives performance (Gartner, 2022), it’s unsurprising we have been working with many clients on evolving their cultures recently. One thing that has been consistent across these clients is that, over recent years, the approach to culture has become overly complicated. So much so it’s hindered progress.

If we think of culture as a conduit for connecting employees to each other, to the organisation and fundamentally to a sense of belonging what becomes important is fostering an environment in which people feel secure and included and where stress is minimised, allowing energy to be channelled into individual and collective performance. With this in mind, early conversations with clients have quickly shifted to a discussion about why it is time to move away from the mindset of wanting to drive a complete culture transformation and instead tackle culture in a psychologically deeper – yet much, much simpler – way.

Culture change shouldn’t be the priority, cultivating it to tap into the core psychology that inspires performance and promotes good mental health should be.

When you take a closer look at ‘high performing’ companies who create business results whilst protecting or improving their employees’ mental wellbeing, it’s not the ‘archetype’ of their culture that correlates between them. It matters less what the exact nature of the culture is (well, as long as is it not toxic), but the fact that the culture it is very strongly felt by everyone in the organisation and most critically that it produces 5 conditions that facilitate high performance:

• Psychological safety & trust: an environment in which people feel they are empowered to experiment, speak out and fail fast; there is safety net to bounce on when things wrong and no blame is laid
• Psychological empowerment: an environment in which people are given the freedom to act within clearly defined boundaries, are able to use their initiative and proactive accountability is celebrated
• Meaning & purpose: an environment that helps people connect their work, and their daily tasks, to a bigger purpose that aligns with their personal values
• Belonging: an environment that promotes deep, purposeful relationships and fosters open and challenging dialogue
• A growth mindset: an environment that creates always-on learning, pushes people to strive towards goals outside of their comfort zone and promotes professional curiosity

Many different “types” of cultures can create these conditions in many ways. These 5 conditions are a powerful force as they tap into intrinsic human motivations. We all are motivated, to a greater or lesser extent, by several core psychological needs:

• Agency – to feel that we are able to impact what is happening
• Contribution – to feel as though we are offering up something that is meaningful and worthwhile
• Altruism –to feel as though we are having an impact on the lives of those around us
• Significance –to feel as though we matter
• Progression – to feel as though we are growing and evolving as individuals, and as a collective

It’s no wonder that all types of talent flourishes in cultures that create these conditions.

Culture evolves through emotional and behavioural contagion, not change programmes.

Culture is emergent and evolving – it lives and breathes in the way humans do. It is always changing. To be able to leverage a culture that creates the conditions above it is important to understand what really shapes it. Culture is built from the things everyone in the organisation says and does, which are themselves driven by beliefs, emotions and thoughts. Some of these are going to be linked to our core values or influenced by our personality, so somewhat stable over time, but a huge amount of what we think, feel and believe fluctuates based upon the events and experiences we encounter.

Leadership, yes, has an important role to play but it is not the only thing that does. Too often organisations believe that if they get senior leaders role modeling the right behaviors then the culture will evolve, and the right type of environment will emerge. A systemic approach to shaping the conditions can go much further, faster than just focusing on leadership role modelling alone.

The social fabric of the organisation, shaped by the day-to-day interactions between peers, colleagues, teams, is one of the largest impacts on thoughts, feelings, beliefs and attitudes. Research from Deloitte (2023) shows that 82% of employees believe peers—not leadership—have the greatest influence on workplace culture. Any investment in culture should include an appreciation of everyone’s role in shaping the experiences of others and in taking personal accountability for the culture. Systems and processes directly influence everyday experiences at work, influencing how people think and feel and signpost what matters to the organisation. Research from Gallup (2023) shows that only 20% of employees strongly agree that their organisation’s systems and processes support a healthy work culture. Yet, very few organisations are willing to consider a systemic review of these in a culture change programme, missing a huge opportunity to create wide reaching changes in everyday behaviours and mindsets.

Creating these conditions through your culture is easier than you think

If organisations really want to leverage their culture to drive performance and mental wellbeing, first they should stop trying to change their culture from one discrete construct to another. Instead, they should focus on understanding how strong their culture is and what facilitates and prohibits the 5 conditions needed for success. They can then target their focus on overcoming any barriers to these conditions and crucially, growing and evolving what is already strong in their culture.

A great place to start is with these questions:

1. Where are we today –what factors most greatly shape our culture and how strong is it?
2. What do our people really think, feel and believe and how does this enable and block the 5 conditions for high performance and wellbeing?
3. What is the highest yield condition(s) to focus on?
4. What is most greatly affecting this condition? E.g. consider behavioural norms, organisation narratives, leadership role modelling, systems and processes.

Usually, organisations have the data and insight to answer these questions, it’s just a case of pulling it together and looking at it through the lens of the 5 cultural conditions. This means they can quickly move to taking action. Small changes in the system that create a very different felt experience day to day. Greatest impact comes from involving everyone in a bottom-up, middle-in, top-supported approach. Recognising that change is iterative and will take time but remembering to celebrate, and share, progress along the way.