New Culture Codes
How do we understand ourselves as individuals and as a part of a group, and how do we re-define that after disruptions, such as the pandemic?
We might find each other and form a group to start up an endeavor because we have similar beliefs, values, and scopes. How we work on something is almost as important as what we work on. We relate to the overall purpose of what we are doing. A single project or endeavor we are working on will not take this apart. If it fails, we start another one.
There is a misleading assumption that everything investors look at would be numbers. In a conversation for an online course with the former CFO from PNC bank, Nick Marsini, who evaluated numerous initiatives and organizations for funding, we ended up with a different factor to evaluate business proposals: It is all about the people.
Does that mean that we share a culture if we work well together ? Culture comes from the Latin Colere which refers to agriculture, how we cultivated the earth. As in western nations only about 3% of the population works in agriculture today, it would be how we produce, distribute, and consume. Then there is art and humanities, unfortunately almost secondary. Edward Burnett Tylor included morals and law in his definition of Culture. Lou Reed instead described in his song “There is no time”: “… self-knowledge is a dangerous thing, the freedom of who you are”.
How do we find out who we are?
To define a group’s culture can be as tricky and at times counterproductive as the attempt to “design” culture. It frequently turns into a definition of rules, but culture does not like rules, it happens almost automatically. Even more restricting are group dynamics, when you become afraid of saying or doing something that might not comply with the mainstream.
Still, “culture eats strategy for breakfast”, as Peter Ducker formulates it. The well perceived book from Daniel Coyle, “The Culture Code”, describes the importance and various aspects of building safety, sharing vulnerability, and establishing purpose. Reading the overwhelmingly positive reviews on Amazon or Goodreads, their interpretations largely evolve around the need to change culture, and some ask for actionable steps to do so.
There are numerous support structures, from culture design consulting firms to a culture design canvas for DIY. My question would be, can you actually design culture? It feels a bit like a society that cultivates group therapies and meets in clubs but has difficulties with spontaneous human interactions. This openness to anything that defines “who we are” would make sure that we evolve with changing realities and circumstances, and don’t get stuck in the way we see the world.
There can be major disruptions to the way we collaborate, such as the pandemic. Some spent a lot of time at home, alone, or with their partners and families. There have been extreme situations, for the front-line workers and for those who had losses, fell sick, or took care of someone who was sick, as well as for who could not continue to work. It certainly did something to us. Beyond infusing home office and remote collaboration, how did we change as human beings, our perception of the world, society and ourselves, our priorities? Needless to say that besides changes in career trajectories this will also impact the way we identify as a group, and each one of us as part of a group. Circumstances have changed, and we have changed.
It is not always in line with the “culture code” when these changes occur, or when new people join a team. It can have strong impacts on startups when they grow and new minds join their endeavor, in particular when investors move in and have their say in any decision making. It is a wise exercise to re-evaluate together how the group identifies to see how new, different perspectives can fit in and stand out, to allow that the identity bends, but does not break. A common reason for the failure of startups is not necessarily money, but the disruptions due to new people on board.
When I was working at the Studio de Lucchi in Milan we were growing very fast: when I joined, we were 14, and after a couple of years over 50 collaborators. We moved in another, bigger space, and merged with the development team of Olivetti. It was all good, but we feared that the feel, the unique atmosphere from our times as a small group in our Brera office would vanish. We tried workshops, even psychologists, but both was somewhat detached from us. What finally really worked was a documentary that a film team made about us. We were all eager to talk in front of the camera about us, individually and us as a team. It was our own part in a space we shared. Pride was very important, we were proud to be part of our group, each one of us in a special, individual way. There was no way to describe who we are, but everyone who was part of the team, even those that were connected, from the copy shop to the model makers, to the place where we had lunch at — they all had this unique atmosphere and way of communicating and dealing with each other. Other places I experienced afterwards, those with a strong culture, eventually turned into some sort of mental jail instead.
It is important to honor the individual, and if it is just to see ongoing change processes and their impact on us. A simple exercise is to record yourself, explain who you are and the culture of the workplace you are part of, and watch how you appear afterwards. It can be a devastating experience; you might not feel and identify with what you see. Maybe there is no space in that culture code at your workplace that lets you be yourself. That’s good. It shows that you are real, that you did not adapt to group dynamics you cannot always identify with.
The tone and the music
It is not only the content that describes culture, but the narrative, the way something is communicated. If an honorable ambition is communicated in an aggressive way, it might have the same effect on us as the same way of communicating an ambition we cannot identify with. We know this from politics, the strong polarizations, and the urgent need to moderate the tones. It is not always what we say, but how we say it.
If we agree on core values and the overall purpose of our work, maybe a possibly simple further definition of our culture code would be to accept that we are different and that we change. Any sort of group dynamics, defense mechanisms, stiff rituals, and trends of what we all do, kill that. I’d rather be part of a group where we cultivate mutually what is different in each one of us and let it shine.
