You’d be forgiven for peering out from under the sheets when someone mentions culture in your organisation. Culture is another one of those terms like ‘teamwork’ that has become a parody of itself, it has devolved into a HR controlled, rule oriented, cesspit of demotivational bullshit – and that’s putting it lightly. I won’t tell you what I really think Ha Ha…
Yet, culture is something that we all yearn for, we find meaning in culture. Whether it’s our national identity, our football team, the type of coffee we drink or the multitude of new derivatives which we create on a seemingly exponential scale each day. We all yearn to belong to something. We want an identity. Why is that? Is it because it’s easier to create a heard around us and hide in the middle than it is to be ourselves, a culture of one? I don’t have an issue with anyone being what they want to be, I really don’t care. I do care about the problems we create where we demand that everyone listens to us. You shout and thump and stomp the ground until some lawmaker or politician, who will do anything for a vote, shoves a legal pacifier in your mouth to shut you up and legitimise you. You get your line in the statute book, you jump up and down and you feel great. Now you have the power to crush anyone who you think might be a threat to you. Now you have meaning. Now you have the clout to enforce that meaning. Congratulations you’ve created a real culture.
Dangerous games
I often wonder where this behaviour will get us. The answer that keeps presenting itself, like an early warning system of a Tsunami, is a version of 1984, (George Orwell 1984) a dystopian totalitarian straight jacket society. I keep telling myself that I’m wrong and I remain optimistic about the future, but that red warning light at the periphery of my vision keeps on blinking.
As a young democratic libertarian in my 20’s I assumed it would be right-wing fascist policies that would get us there (Dystopia). It never actually occurred to me that it might be overcorrecting left-wing policies that did it. If you think about it, there’s no difference in being a right-wing extremist or a left-wing extremist, you’re an extremist either way. If you think of the left and right as opposing views then you might visualise them as linear, with the distance between increasing the more extreme the view. That’s how I’ve always visualised it anyway. There is however one modification of the visual that I’ve recently realised. The picture isn’t linear, it’s circular. The left and right extremism is the extremity away from the centre, not from each other, the extreme left is the same as the extreme right, they touch and are the same thing, they are the undesirable, a demand for things your way, a dystopia.
This realisation scares me. Shouting and waving your flag can end up accelerating the arrival of the version of the world you don’t want. The boss of a company I worked for a long time ago reminded me to be careful what I wish for. That always stuck with me. It’s a common enough phrase, but common phrases you already know can often make you blind to the wisdom within them. Are you pushing a policy or waving a flag, do you really understand the consequences? John Hume, a central figure in ending the Northern Ireland conflict, speaking about the futility of waving a flag famously said, “You can’t eat a flag.”
Culture club
The boss that gave me the wise words – be careful what I wished for was, Eugene McGinty at Connect Global Solutions. As a young go-getter I must have stood out a for some reason, I was picked to participate in a committee that was tasked with defining and implementing a culture within the company. This was a great experience, I learned so much so quick.
Connect was a great working experience, it was an Irish start-up before start-ups were cool. The higgledy-piggledy offices and the canteen in the warehouse behind the loading bay door was real, it wasn’t an imitation like a faux-cool modern office. Sitting on a pallet and drinking form a jar was practical, not cool. I enjoyed my time in Connect because I worked with lots of nice people who became good friends. There was actually a great atmosphere in there but there was also division. The 22 year old me didn’t need much intuition to detect the division between the different parts of the company. There were managerial cliques, discord between departments, superiority and inferiority complexes, and a general lack of ‘togetherness.’ However, there were great aspects to the company: a fantastic football team which I loved playing for, the opportunity to get involved in different parts of the business, and to learn new skills like networks and Linux. There was also the chance to innovate, and there were some really nice and some really smart people who were willing to show you what they know.
Eugene was obviously aware of the need to implement change, so I believe he created the committee with the best of intentions. When he offered me the opportunity to implement change and and create harmony in the company I jumped at it. I thought the answer was obvious, all I had to do was air out the problems and they would fix themselves. The reaction I got from friends in the company was “You’re working for them? You’re working for free? They’re taking advantage of you, etc…” I had to sit through lunch break with jeers like “How’s the culture club?”. These remarks did not bother me, I don’t think it was any kind of mental toughness, it was just a blissful lack of awareness at being the butt of a Joke. After a bunch of meetings, emails and surveys we generated a lot of employee feedback. From the feedback we decided that there was a lack of trust, respect, honesty, harmony etc. You could have just wrote down the generic list of words we produced by opening the bible on the right page. Our solution was to write a code of conduct, saying that people should respect each other, he honest yada yada etc.. etc… We printed some lovely posters with the words on them and displayed them around the company. Problem solved – and everyone lived happily ever after.
Except they didn’t, of course. The whole thing failed miserably. I think it’s a great time to mention some definitions of a committee that I love: A committee is a collation of the unwilling tasked with doing the unnecessary. An Ass (Donkey) is a horse designed by a committee. Why did we fail? If it isn’t obvious by now then ill spell it out.
Generic meaningless tripeTM
Everyone wants to be respected. Everyone wants to be trusted. Everyone wants >insert your word here<
These things are obvious. It’s an insult to people to print the obvious on posters and tell them something they already know. Writing a generic code of conduct in your organisation and hoping (or forcing) people follow it, is not a good idea. It is, in fact, a stupid idea and will fail. Speaking from experience.
You can’t implement culture in your company by forcing generic obvious biblical hopes on all, you can’t do it in a country either (Refer current state of world) . You’ll end up reinforcing the beliefs of the different groups you’re trying to unite because you’ll prove them right. You’ll create further distrust and further division. How have you proved them right? You prove them right by producing generic meaningless tripeTM. You prove that you are not listening to them, you’re not hearing their wants, and you are not serving their needs. Ultimately this will cost you, you’re not going to win the league.
After a couple of decades or so that seen the Web2 silicon valley culture demand; playground slides, free Frappuccinos, Beanbags, Pallets to sit on, Greenpeace donations, Plastic recycling policies.. you must see that there is no end to this list of demands, it will only keep growing. This continuous need for pacifiers will only keep everyone crying for the teat and they will never reach any kind of fulfilment in their lives. People think they want these things because these things take away the pain, temporarily. The pain of their lives, the pain of mediocrity. Turn on, tune in, drop out. The human surely got that arse-ways. Turn off, tune out.
What’s the answer? Speaking as someone who made all these mistakes, the answer is that the great things in life, the great music, the great movies, the great teams, the great players, the great leaders all have one thing in common. They make the person feel ALIVE. These greats are not mediocre, not generic. They tap into a reality that the follower suspects is there and is excited to get a glimpse. PASSION there’s a word. Fully loaded. Look at the great football managers – passion, low or high? HIGH. Movies that make you cry every time – passion low or high? HIGH Songs – don’t even start me on music, great music blows me to pieces.
Are you a leader? An entrepreneur? Then you’ve a passion, the passion that needs to escape from you is the seed of the culture that is needed in the organisation you lead. You can’t fake it for all the reasons I’ve just gone through, people will know instantly if you’re not genuine. If that scares you then that’s a good thing, the thoughts of people you lead seeing into your soul should scare you, because in there is the truth the thing that people will follow into a burning building if you’ll only lead them. It’s that powerful. You’ve no doubt seen it used for evil as much as it’s used for good. I hope it goes without saying, I don’t recommend you lead your people into a burning building.
Culture? Easy, it’s you. It’s the leader. If you outsource it to a committee or your HR department you’re going to get it back in the face 10X. It’s too risky. I’m giving you permission to be yourself bring out your passion, I promise that will mean more to the people who follow you than the money you are wasting on the playground office and other pacifiers. Why did you start this business? Why do you want to be a leader? What’s the mission. Get behind it, feel the passion for it, communicate that to your people in your own way, look stupid, keep going, keep refining, keep leading, keep communicating, keep growing and you’ll end up with fulfilled passionate people working with you. Culture is created through the energy of the leader. If the leader does not fill that space, then as in any vacuum everything else will rush in to full the void.
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