You may have heard it said before that a strong culture is critical to organizational success. Besides having a strong one, it must be a clear one as well. People who work for or with your organization should know what you stand for without you ever having to speak a word. This is true for both the for-profit and nonprofit (social profit) sectors. You can recite mission, vision, and values all you like, but actions do speak louder than words.
Or put another way by Ralph Waldo Emerson “What you do speaks so loudly I cannot hear what you are saying.” Bragging about how smart and cool you think you are, or that you aren’t racist for instance, means zip if you consistently act in a boneheaded or racist manner.
Business and political folks often cite sports teams when discussing the importance of culture. It is no coincidence that winning athletic teams, regardless of the sport, typically have a strong organizational culture that translates into competing for championships on a regular basis.
This should be no different for social profit organizations. It may be even more important for the social profit sector due to how much can be at stake based on their success or failure.
The world keeps spinning when our favorite team loses a game. Only the players and coaches are impacted perhaps, from a job security standpoint. The owner’s or school’s pocketbook might get a little skinnier if the team underperforms on a yearly basis.
However, if a social profit agency fails to gain adequate resource support, and thereby lag in services provided, many lives are impacted in very real and sometimes life-threatening ways. It would stand to reason then that a charity should spend a fair amount of time clearly defining who and what they are to better ensure that support in the form of time, talent, and treasure flows freely and often.
How much time do you spend as an organization defining, developing and executing day to day business that is reflective of the culture you are aspiring to have? Do you strategize more about culture and planning for success than you do in counting paper clips? Could all staff and board members speak confidently to the culture of your organization beyond a recitation of the mission statement? Is culture regularly discussed in meetings, or do you mainly report on the obvious stuff?
These are but a few of the questions you should ask yourself as leaders of any organization to ensure you are spending adequate focus on strengthening the firm’s culture.
To be sure, a winning culture doesn’t happen overnight, nor does it survive on its own once you feel you have achieved it. It is akin to striving for that “more perfect union.” A fluid, ongoing exercise that evolves as necessary with the times.
Here are a few things that all businesses, including in the film industry, should consider which may help your organization stay on the right track towards a more clear, vibrant, and winning culture:
- Make talking about culture a consistent agenda at staff and board meetings. Discussing things as a group can foster a sense of ownership of, and adherence to, that culture. Board meetings can quickly become bored meetings if you don’t spend enough time thinking strategically. This can lead to disengagement.
- Do a brief written survey internally about how the culture is perceived, and what, if any changes/upgrades should be made. Elicit a similar external response from key stakeholders. Check both surveys against one another to discover consistencies and/or discrepancies.
- Clearly identify key components of your culture. Every organization is certainly different, however, in my opinion there are a few common themes I have seen in high performing organizations I have been a part of, led or consulted to.
- Everyone knows their respective roles and responsibilities and works as a team from board through staff.
- Micromanagement is eschewed. Left unchecked, micromanaging stifles creativity and can kill morale.
- Diversity, equity, and inclusion is valued as part of the fabric of the organization, running through every aspect of the business. Not merely a standalone, box checking exercise. An organization that values diversity of experience and thought and demonstrates inclusivity should be an aspiration of any viable business concern in the game for the long haul.
- Clear and consistent messaging concerning the culture which in turn, fosters a sense of ownership.
- 360-degree feedback from internal and external stakeholders.
- Revisit mission, vision, and values statements on a regular basis to ensure they are in sync with your culture in a positive way. A willingness to evolve as needed is essential.
- Compare and contrast your marketing and resource development materials to ensure the messaging is consistent with your culture and vice versa. Revise as needed.
- Make talking about the pride in your organization’s culture a regular part of external presentations. You should be proud of who you are and are aspiring to be. Letting people know just where you are coming from helps them better understand you and perhaps inspire them to want to support your organization with time, talent, and/or treasure. By making who you are, public, you now must hold yourselves accountable for living up to your stated ideals. This is a chance to let people know your “why?”
- Last, but not least, have fun in the process of working together on what is arguably the most important aspect of your business. Living up to your organizational aspirations and values drives everything else you face as a business.
Cheers,
LP
Chief Diversity Officer, VP Corporate & Community Engagement