The Prevailing Current

Organizational culture has been defined in many ways: the way we do things; the sense of the place; a uniformity of purpose; shared values; strong social trust; an internalized ethos, and so on. All are abstract notions, yet they capture the essence.

Metaphorically, culture is a continuously wafting breeze. We can feel the wind’s touch; we sometimes see leaves rustle and trees sway; we may pick up a scent carried from miles away. And, like the volatility of people comprising the culture, the direction and strength of the breeze can change. Sometimes dramatically.

Still, every culture has a prevailing current that emanates from the organization’s ecosystem. While that environment may be familiar in its main features, a strong culture depends on the uniqueness of its details. Those details are the prevailing current of culture, shaping and directing its navigational mechanisms. Understanding the details of the organization’s operational ecosystem is fundamental to the development of its culture and, by extension, the reputational brand.

Certainly, culture has a major influence on brand, and it can reveal itself in the most routine moments. But culture cannot always compensate for the deficiencies and misfirings of daily organizational choreography.

For example, a product’s failure can be the result of a subcomponent manufactured by an overseas contractor three steps removed from the organization’s production line. In response to a customer’s complaint, an employee might overstep his or her authority in offering a temporary solution. Such ad hoc employee interventions often become the “brand aid” to patch over substandard processes, products, or services. It’s in these moments when the organization’s culture whispers in the ear.

Yet, even as (or perhaps because) humans are inherently individualistic in delivering these “brand aids,” successful employee workarounds when things go wrong often fall into the organizational abyss. A problem solved creatively in the moment rarely provokes introspective re-engineering of a process or system breakdown. Besides which there’s usually little incentive to address the underlying causes of performance failures when the next urgent priority is racing down the stretch.

Of course, addressing the root causes of things-gone-wrong would lead to better outcomes for future brand experiences. However, the immediate employee workaround may produce a substantially more satisfactory brand experience in the moment than begging your customer’s patience as you address the root cause. This is how culture sometimes trumps process, even though it shouldn’t have to — nor should we want it to.

In fact, the two most important ingredients in achieving consistently good brand experiences are your people and your processes. When it comes to people, most employees want to do their best, or at least perform to minimum acceptable standards. The encouraging whisper of organizational culture attempts to further inspire team members to do the little extras on behalf of fellow colleagues and customers.

Yes, we have Codes of Conduct, statutory HR training, firm productivity targets (goals), and role-based performance incentives to encourage performance according to expected standards. However, there is no methodology inherent in culture that will earn an employee’s discretionary effort beyond what’s expected of the role. And sometimes bureaucratic protocols inhibit an employee’s enthusiasm to solve a problem in the moment, even in the most supportive culture.

Ultimately, organizational culture isn’t a process, which means it can’t be regulated. But, as the standard bearer of organizational values, culture matters greatly in the brand’s reputational formula.

The Invisible Hand of Brand

The project of organizational culture is to bring the best out of people who are engaged in a collective endeavor. The tension between what’s good for the individual and what’s best for the organization makes the “culture piece” an existential leadership challenge. This explains the seemingly inexhaustible articles and posts reminding us that culture matters in shaping organizational success.

Similarly, much has been written about the importance of culture in molding and nurturing the brand. Setting aside the human variability factor, an organization’s prevailing culture at least sets the tone for what can become of the brand.

In its ideal form, the brand is the figurative embodiment of culture, or even perhaps the metaphorical ensoulment of culture. Ultimately, a culture-infused brand acts as a spirit guide; a totem representing the organization’s intentions and aspirations. One cannot detach culture from the brand’s quintessence just as one could not separate water from wet.

Indeed, culture is an invisible hand chaperoning the brand’s journey. Its power and influence on the brand requires a deeper discussion, including the many forms culture takes within a multi-layered and multi-team enterprise. For there is no such thing as a monolithic monoculture within an organization of even the merest size and complexity.

For example, the rise of employee resource groups — i.e., cultures within a culture — inside the larger organization tells us everything we need to know about the limits of overarching culture. Instead, we are better served to understand the various dimensions of culture and their various influences on brand outcomes.

The Dimensions of Culture

One of the more overused assertions pertaining to business execution is “culture eats strategy for breakfast.” It’s not that it’s wrong; culture is hugely important. It’s simply… too simple. First, the expression does not distinguish between organizational culture (the province of “values”) and operating culture (the province of value). Additionally, organizational culture comprises three dimensions of culture (Enterprise, Workplace, and Team) that each play distinct roles in exhibiting and representing the organization’s brand promise. Certainly, other types of culture exist, including employee resource groups and geographic/national varieties, but these are largely subsets of the four pre-eminent ones:

• Enterprise Culture

• Workplace Culture

• Team Culture

• Operating Culture

Each dimension of culture has distinct characteristics and offers useful, complementary contributions to the brand’s development, positioning and expression. But when it comes to delivering brand experiences, Operating Culture exercises the greatest influence.

Enterprise Culture is the foundational layer at which a business or institution codifies expected attitudes and behaviors for its team members (employees and representatives). Think of Enterprise Culture as the A440 musical pitch to which every player in the organizational orchestra tunes their frame of mind. Notably, Enterprise Culture represents inspirational and aspirational attributes that emanate from the organization’s value proposition.

Typically expressed in the form of virtuous values, an inspiring vision, a mobilizing mission and a noble purpose, Enterprise Culture sets the tone for all who ultimately will influence or may affect the brand’s expression and delivered experiences (philanthropic and advocacy-based organizations naturally will also establish — or at least signal — the beliefs they expect their employees to hold and represent). In terms of the organization’s brand, Enterprise Culture essentially expresses “who we are, what we believe, why we matter” and the unifying principles that underpin and guide all of the organization’s activities.

Connection to brand: To be useful to the brand, Enterprise Culture must be authentic and relevant to employees, customers and other stakeholders who matter to the organization. For external audiences, Enterprise Culture operates more as a signaling platform offering clues about the brand than as an animating dynamic that inspirits the brand. Even for those who may never interact with the brand (via people, products or services), Enterprise Culture shapes the contours of the organization’s motivations, intentions, and commitments against the broader external context of economic, environmental, societal, and political concerns.

Workplace Culture consists of two parts: hard-coded ways we organize our “work society” and the programmable components, which are largely leadership dependent, that help align the organization. The former consists of policies, procedures and systems that set the guardrails for what’s acceptable legally, ethically, and operationally. A company’s Code of Conduct is a governing instrument of Workplace Culture. HR policies attempt to adapt Enterprise Culture within the larger framework of legal, ethical, and operational considerations. Procedures and SOPs inherent to the daily work of the enterprise reflect established workplace rules and hierarchies.

The second piece of Workplace Culture is rooted in the care and feeding of hearts and minds, which generally depends on the active participation of the organization’s leadership. As such, the elements are essentially programmable in the sense that leadership skills can be developed, reinforced or incentivized. This is the domain of employee engagement, where recognition, appreciation, support, empowerment and opportunity, among other meaningful life-at-work experiences, promote belonging and allegiance to the organization and, by extension, the brand.

Connection to brand: At its core, Workplace Culture focuses on employees who, individually and collectively, influence how the brand will evolve as an experiential vessel. Workplace Culture is where organizations create the environment for the day-to-day moments that drive effort, enthusiasm, and energy in support of the organization and brand. The alignment and advocacy of the organization’s leaders are crucial in building and sustaining a high-functioning Workplace Culture. Any division or disagreement in the leadership ranks about the nature or mechanisms of Workplace Culture will be as counterproductive to the brand as it would be for the organization overall.

Team Culture is where Enterprise and Workplace cultures are interpreted and applied at business-unit or work-unit levels, in effect creating unique subcultures adapted to the equally unique character of their business, operations, location, skills or tasks. Largely driven by people managers, Team Cultures often reflect — and sometimes formally articulate — values, visions, and missions proximate to or beyond those of the larger enterprise, reflecting the distinct nature of their work, customers, or local communities.

Team Cultures can also evolve through the animating forces of identity and representation, which may also lead to officially recognized subordinate brands or affiliate brands. So, while Team Cultures exist as a practical reality — and many subcultures may exist in any given organization — those overseeing the foundational Enterprise and Workplace cultures must learn how to accommodate distinctive Team Cultures under the larger brand umbrella, unless such accommodation would be detrimental to the primary reputational brand.

Connection to brand: Much of the organization’s customer-facing (internal and external) work activities are framed within the Team Culture dimension such that the brand truly becomes a living, experiential entity in this realm. That is, the brand embodies experiences and gains reputation according to the direct exertions of the people and teams operating under its mark. Team Cultures are inevitable and a net positive to the brand provided they remain organizationally cohesive and operationally integrated; however, if they decouple from the Enterprise and Workplace cultures of the larger organization they may need to operate and exist as separate, subordinate, or affiliate brands with distinct brand positioning.

Operating Culture is where work processes, practices, techniques and systems (the methodologies of productivity) are institutionalized to achieve desired outcomes, whether in the form of a finished good, an intraorganizational transaction, a service, or other vessel of value. Heavily reliant on interdependent Team Cultures, strong Operating Cultures elevate and invest in continuous improvement as a formal discipline, with established and documented processes and procedures that repeatably produce consistent and predictable results. Properly understood, Operating Culture is the beating heart of the brand ecosystem.

Few organizations fully consider the effect of poor Operating Cultures on brand experiences (efficiency, cost, and quality issues receive the lion’s share of attention), but the linkage is undeniable. In fact, like the proverbial butterfly effect, small deviations in operational systems can lead to inconsistent and unpredictable brand experiences, not to mention inefficiencies and quality issues. On the other hand, if work methodologies are well designed and with desired brand experiences in mind, i.e., with a clear understanding of what the “touchstones of our touchpoints” should be, the well-developed Operating Culture not only can keep cost and quality issues within view, but it can also be a powerful force in support of the organization’s brand.

Connection to brand: Operating Culture wields the most influence over the health and status of the brand compared to Enterprise, Workplace or Team cultures. Whatever experiences we want to create and deliver depend on the proficiency of our operations. A strong Operating Culture demands a commitment to operational excellence which, when considering the brand, also factors desired customer and employee experiences as part of process-improvement implementations.

To summarize, all four dimensions of culture operate concurrently and contribute to or impact the development of an organization’s brand to varying degrees and aspects.

Enterprise Culture is declarative in nature, depicting the broad outlines of the organization’s ethos and commitments. Useful for shaping reputation among external audiences and unifying employees under a common banner, Enterprise Culture is largely aspirational in tone, ambitious in its expectations and abstract in method. Fundamentally, Enterprise Culture serves as the brand’s North Star across the arc of the organization’s multifarious undertakings and engagements.

Workplace Culture shapes the daily work environment and sets the stage for “moments that matter” in the employee experience. Since, ultimately, employees play the foremost role in delivering customer experiences, Workplace Culture is the crucial crossroad at which brand becomes manifest as a movement based on moments that matter. In this respect, leadership counts: leaders are the linchpin connecting employee engagement, empowerment, and enablement to customer (and brand) experiences.    

Team Culture is where abstract organizational tenets and leadership exhortations are measured against employees’ direct personal experiences and manager/supervisor interactions. These personal experiences can vary significantly and greatly influence the attitudes and behaviors of team members, which introduces potential variability in customer and brand experiences, absent a strong Operating Culture.

Operating Culture reflects the organization’s processes, procedures and systems that support the delivery of customer and brand experiences. In this sense, the brand’s strength is contingent upon the design and effectiveness of the organization’s operating system. Put another way, a brand promise unsupported by superior operational competence is a recipe for customer dissatisfaction. In the most ideal form, operating systems are reverse-engineered or re-imagined from the standpoint of desired customer and employee experiences at critical touchpoints.