Culture is a vague term, and as such, gets thrown around a lot in discussion without much description or detail.
When hearing about a failing business, you may hear terms such as ‘toxic’ culture.
When discussing sporting achievements or disappointments, you may come across ‘winning’ or ‘losing’ cultures.
And if you’re interviewing for a new role, you may be interested in the ‘working’ or ‘workplace’ culture.
But for these last two, just a few letters different, but hugely different in meaning. And this point of difference is where Coode’s expertise comes in.
What is Workplace Culture?
Yes, it’s hugely important to employees. No one’s doubting that. It’s borne out by the fact that 72% of respondents to a survey in Canada consider workplace culture more important than company prestige.
Workplace culture, after all, dictates what your working environment looks like. What, and where, is my office? What are the facilities? Are there perks included? What time do we wrap things up at the end of the day? Are we encouraged to chat and get to know each other, or are there designated focus times? Do we eat lunch together, or do we have the autonomy to spend the time as we choose?
All of these questions are important to employees, who spend more of their time at their job than anywhere else.
And when people think of ‘culture’, perhaps it is only natural that their mind think of workplace culture first.
But that’s not where Coode operates.
Our Principals and consultants don’t dictate what perks employers should offer to its employees, come up with group lunch suggestions, or give you leaders an itinerary for the working day.
Our work goes deeper.
Where Leaders Come In
An alien thought to many, organisational culture can be simply defined as ‘how work gets achieved’.
You might be thinking, ‘That sounds a lot like leadership or strategy’.
And you’d be right, because culture, leadership and strategy are all bedfellows. Without one operating at its zenith, an organisation will face confusion, friction, and resistance.
Organisational culture goes further than a workplace culture ever could.
‘How do we operate?’
‘What is our purpose? Our vision for the organisation?’
‘What are our tangible growth goals, and how are we going to achieve that?’
‘What does that need from our leadership group, right the way down to managers and their teams?’
‘How do we hold people accountable, and how do they hold themselves accountable?’
‘What does reporting and feedback look like?’
‘How we do communicate in this organisation to ensure the utmost transparency and clarity?’
These are all questions of culture, and leadership teams are responsible for answering them.
Where Coode Sits
The distinction between workplace culture and organisational culture matters because improving one does not necessarily improve the other.
An organisation can create a positive workplace experience through flexibility, wellbeing initiatives and employee benefits, but still struggle with the deeper cultural challenges that affect performance: unclear priorities, inconsistent leadership behaviours, poor accountability or misalignment around strategy.
That is where Coode operates.
Our Principals and consultants help leadership teams understand the culture that exists today, identify the friction points holding performance back and deliberately shape the ways of working required for future success.
Time and time again, we’ve seen the organisations that perform consistently well are not those that leave culture to chance. They recognise it as a critical business discipline that must be worked on like any other function.
What’s next
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Potential, realised
At Coode, we look at strategy through a human lens because success depends on how people work together. When leadership teams achieve real alignment in how they lead, they unlock performance that may have been present all along but not yet fully realised.
To explore how Coode helps leaders define culture and align it with their strategy and context, visit our services page or get in touch here.
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