Warning on Culture: The Cynics Are Out With Their Knives...

Trying to build a great culture at your company?  Think culture can give you a competitive advantage?  You're right.  But there's something you should know about the process of trying to build a great culture.

The cynics are around every corner, and they don't like what you are doing.  They'd rather blade you than look at you.  They think you're a cheerleader, and it pisses them off.

It's a necessary conversation to have, and it's on my mind because of a thoughtful piece by Chief Culture Officer Grant McCraken (you should check out his blog) over at the Harvard Business Review:

"Visitors touring the Zappos headquarters in Las Vegas are greeted noisily. Staffers blow horns and ring cowbells to bid them welcome.

This sort of thing puts my teeth on edge. Call me a grinch. Call me a humorless, life-hating, stick in the mud, but commandeering personal emotions in the interest of forced conviviality seems to me wrong. I believe emotions are mostly a private matter and should not be controlled by the corporation.

Comedians have long made fun of the airline staff member who wishes everyone farewell with real feeling, in very quick succession. Can sincerity be serial, we wonder?

Our culture cares increasingly about authenticity. Indeed, thanks to the work of Joseph Pine and James Gilmore, authenticity has become a watchword in the world of marketing. In this new cultural convention, being really excited all the time is patently inauthentic, not least because we know that peak moments of emotion are by their nature occasional. So when we ask our staff to roll out the bonhomie, some employees now believe they are being asked to be inauthentic."

Those are deep thoughts that would resonate with any cynic of culture-building (and there are many) and fair in some circumstances. But as a team member who just joined a company (DAXKO) who cares about culture, the devil is in the details for me.  We (DAXKO) don't do the cheer-leading described above, but still the cynics, mostly internal, are there and the thought process goes something like this:

--Why are we spending so much time on culture?  We need to be focused on results!

--Stop promoting the culture.  Life is tough here (we're asked to work hard) and the promotion doesn't match the reality.

And that's in a company with no Zappo's-like culture/cheerleading.  So, how do you look to build culture AND build authenticity at the same time?.  How do you silence the critics who say you're a cheerleader?  The answer is pretty simple for me.

Make your culture operational in nature.  Figure out what you want your Talent DNA to be so it matches your culture, and then be unyielding in your drive to hire only those who have the DNA chromosome your're looking for, and be willing to fire those who lose that DNA once they're in the door or faked you out in the interview process. 

Put your money where your mouth is by defining who fits, then hire and fire accordingly.  My guess is that the cynicism goes waaaay down if you're willing to do that.

UPDATE: Grant McCracken will be the guest on this Thursday's HR Happy Hour show with my friend Steve Boese (Click here for details).  You should check it out...

Comments

[Steve Boese]

KD - Nice piece. I think I tend to agree with you and Grant, the glad-handing, cheerleading does ring hollow after a while, ('Welcome to Moes!). But hiring people that naturally 'fit' and cutting loose those that don't is a much more daunting task. Way easier, as Grant described in this piece, to require employees wear the correct number of pieces of flair.

Shameless plug - Grant McCracken the author of Chief Culture Officer will be the guest on this Thursday's HR Happy Hour show.

[Natalie]

This is a difficult question. How do you build culture without seeming inauthentic? I am glad that you brought the issue up. I wish I knew the answer, but Ii do know that the cheer-leading atmosphere of some companies makes me ill. Great piece!

[Gabriel Gheorghiu]

When building anything in a company, you need criticism. It is true that cynics often times exaggerate, but i think that their feed-back is much more important than nothing (which is what you get from people who follow blindly or because they don't care what's going on)

These are two extremes (cynics and ignorants)but they aren't rare and you have to somehow deal with them too.

[Tina Marie Sasuga-Paludi]

http://bit.ly/6GYCBO

Please hire me.

[Chris Ferdinandi - Renegade HR]

KD - Great issues raised by this post. How are things shaping up at DAXKO?

I think that cheerleading at Zappos IS genuine. They actively screen for people who are unique and a little weird. They pay people to leave.

Is it for everyone? Absolutely not. But to call it insincere is, I think, unfair.

[Brenda Rigney]

I agree. Being authentic begins with the interview and selection process. Hiring managers need to be honest in what the company offers and what it doesn't. I think of great companies that have done this - GE with Jack Welch and Netflix. They don't hide behind "employee engagement" hoopla. They tell it like it is. This way only the folks that fit that culture will apply. I think its the right thing to do in this economy when people are so desperate for the next best job.