Thru Their Eyes

Value of Corporate Culture

Jim Heskitt has a new book out about the value of corporate culture or more specifically why it costs when leaders don't actively manage their cultures ( The Culture Cycle: How to Shape the Unseen Force that Transforms Performance)

I had the pleasure of speaking with Jim about corporate culture from an behavioral point of view. We chatted over how to get leaders into the 'softness' of managing their corporate culture. We landed on the idea that most leaders and employee's are not taught the skill to identify behaviors that drive everyday actions. "Values" are used as the instructor to our behavior and yet whilst most people know what they mean but not how to put them into action

Example:

Value: We act with integrity

Other than the grand ideas of not cheating or lying or stealing how does that idea (integrity) get played out in the everyday all around you? 

One would think that this is a no brainer. Your company is successful if your culture is managed in a tangible way - if you define the behavior and the associated outcomes of that behavior. What in the world is so hard to understand about that. 

Well, here's the thing. It really hard to identify the core behavior of a value (or set of values). We naturally jump straight to action and you'll hear the deadly phrase "I just assumed you knew". Why is identifying behavior so important? Why not just tie your Corporate Values to a series of actions and tell people this is an example of what to do? 

Identifying behavior is a learning  framework. Behavior is the result of internalising the knowledge and putting it into action. Behavior is the insight, action is the tactic. It's the core behaviors that create a corporate culture not just the actions.  The actions are the expression of the Corporate Values in context. 

Example:

Value >Core Behavior> putting values into Action

Integrity >Responsiveness>Answering all contacts within two days

 

If you are interested in how to learn to identify core behaviours or how this could impact your corporation contact me through the blog or  egilding@insite.dasglobal.com

 

Social Strategy 2

Here's the thing. Social strategy seems to be how to manipulate the various platforms in order to ignite a behavior change. So like all strategy it relies on a deep understanding of the behavioral make-up of the user. 

I was hunting through our apartment trying to find a card for my  Aunt Betty's birthday this morning when I found some really cool old print ads (husband collects all sorts of junk). They were truly awful. A photo of a women and a man, she in poofy skirt and he in suit, with a bowl of blackened food on the table and a six pack. "Well, at least you didn't burn the beer" is the tag. 

Awful. Sexist. Dreadful. Yes all that. And it made me think - are we doing that with our social strategies? I mean, are we creating these naive and socially inept (if not insulting) approaches to our consumers? How would we know? These old ads were not acceptable even in the day but they were created and judged and produced and reviewed by only a micro section of the community (white guys in suits). I wonder if we look back in 20 or 30 years we will cringe at our dreadfully short sighted social media communications? 

Social Strategy

I'm putting together a discussion about social strategy for very high level execs (CEO etc). Whilst I don't want to insult them, if they are like the rest of us oldies we may have some *gaps* in our understanding of what social strategy is. 

 

I am looking for the best way to describe it. Other info on the topic that you have found insightful or motivating would be great also. 

 

So far, the winner is: Social Strategy is the manipulation of the various communication platforms in order to motivate the individual user.