So what is Culture? Does Organizational Culture matter?
Culture is about living your values, every single day. From an Organization’s stand-point its a way of working that ensures that critical operating values persist at all times. Some of you might already know the importance of Company Culture or Organizational culture, I will however enumerate, the most important effects of having the RIGHT culture.
- Culture helps Build Social Capital (Good will) ahead of Monetary Capital.
Culture helps REFINE your GOALS & helps you build long-lasting Organizations. - Organizational Cutlure hence matters immensly. So, what should be your Company or Organizational CUTLURE?
While I am not an anthropologist or an Organizational Psychologist in any regard, and I do not understand the nuances of all Organizational Cultures & their importance in the economic function, its imperative that I comment on Software & Product Organizations, specifically with regards to employees helping each-other & their Culture towards Contributing to Communities. THINK Opensource or think Volunteer Communities.
Before doing that, our track record says, its not a CULTURE for INDIAN Software companies and Software programmers to contribute to Opensource communities or Volunteer Communities. If within any organization as an employee, we believe in helping each other, then why don’t we think about doing the same outside of our work? Do we really empathize at WORK, & believe in the CULTURE of selfless giving or do we do it, because its a GIVE-and-TAKE inside a company? Have we ditched our own Culture of Karma? Have we become too Individualistic, and think its NOT our JOB, to do even small community chores?
Why is Culture needed? Why should we put Culture FIRST?
Almost every Lean method today is about empathizing with the Customer, keeping the Customer-centric view first and then rapidly building tools, products, services, etc. Customer Development is a priority, rather than Product Development. Empathy is a Core-Cultural construct of today. Come to think of it, our entire Indian Cultural ethos is based on Empathy. “Karuna” is the foundation of almost every teaching in our country. Indian institutionalization and Orientation has Empathy by Design. Why is it, that we have not built community products, community services & community experiences that cater to the needs/wants/aspirations of people, when there is Empathy by Design in our culture?
Tough questions to answer universally or generally. However focusing on Software and Services, I think we have gotten too-carried away with MOBILE FIRST & MARKET FIRST Culture, rather than thinking ECO-SYSTEM & COMMUNITY CULTURE FIRST. Business Ecosystems today emphasize a lot on Monetary Capital, but empathize little about Social Captial. We have become too focused on Systems, Processes and Technology, rather than addressing the concerns of people. That should explain why we have failed to reciprocate to the needs of people around us.
Fellow Customers/Consumers/Citizens are the first GOD. When we truly realize this Consumer-centric view, we quickly understand that no single Organization with all its Monetary might can take care of all the needs of the Citizen/Consumer. Individuals & Organizations need to have a Culture to collaborate with other Partners, and build Social Capital first. They need to put Culture as a priority in building Ecosystems.
Culture By Design – Can Culture be Designed?
YES. One needs to focus on their core values and the specific outcomes they want to produce. Some of the values that help in having a long-lasting Culture are simple.
- Producing Collective Public good is more important than Individual Private Profits.
- The Collective-Mindset needs to be at a higher priority than Individual-Mindsets.
- The Ecosystem Focus is critical than the narrow-focus of just One Organization.
Let me go a little further, your Cutlural design many times will be simple to Understand, Implement and Follow, but will have far-reaching behavioral outcomes. Focus on seemingly trivial Individual Behaviors. Here are 2 simple Cultural Design Elements, that focus on Individual behavior in an Organization.
- Acknowledge Individual Short-comings at all times.
- Seek help from the Community/Crowd to fix those short-comings as fast as possible.
All major companies like Google/Facebook and successful Open source Organizations actually practice the above 2 cultural design elements religiously. Below are a few examples.
e.g. Successful Open source organizations (Linux, Redhat, Ubuntu)
- We will not hide any issues from the Consumer. (acknowledge short-comings)
- We will Release early and Release often. (Fixing with help from Community)
Google’s 2 most well known cultures also follow the same cultural design constructs
- Don’t be evil (acknowledge shortcomings)
- Perpetual Beta (Continuous fixing of issues)
We are all flawed. Software products are also imperfect ideas, and need to be tested locally, and refined continually. Having a culture designed to help take IDEAS or PRODUCTS go past their imperfect states & attain Global Standards, requires a Culture of Openness, of being able to work with Others to fix individual shortcomings.
Conclusion – Codifying Community Culture
We are a country blessed with Empathy by Design. We are a nation that believes in Karma. So, fellow Entrepreneurs, if there is one CULTURE that we need to re-learn, it is to contribute Selflessly to Communities and Ecosystems around us. We at iSpirt and ProductNation fundamentally believe that “You will get all you want in LIFE, if you help enough other PEOPLE, to get what they want”. The future is a world where, while enriching others, you will enrich yourself. iSPIRT volunteers and Community Mavens are there to help you build this Culture and are more than happy to be cheerleaders from the sidelines! Part 2 of this culture series will provide insights into Codifying the iSPIRT Culture.