"Culture eats strategy"

If you have been paying any attention whatsoever to the management literature over the past 20 plus years, you will have heard the axiom, "Culture eats strategy for lunch" (or a different version, "Culture eats strategy for breakfast").  The phrase is often attributed to the management guru Peter Drucker, though in actual truth he probably never said it.  Regardless of who said it first, the point is that organizational culture is very important.  The important caveat is that strategy is important too, and that's what often gets lost when this axiom is loosely thrown around.  Organizations who ignore strategy do so at their own peril.

What is absolutely clear is that a bad culture will subsume a good strategy.  Whether or not one is more important than the other is probably irrelevant.  They are both necessary and critical aspects to the overall success of any group, team, or organization.

Mark Fields, the CEO of Ford Motor Company from 2014 to 2017 perhaps summarized it all best, when he said "You can have the best plan in the world, and if the culture isn't going to let it happen, it's going to die on the vine."  Adam Bryant, writing in Strategy + Business, suggests that it is often the "frozen middle" (a euphemism for middle managers who are reluctant to give up the status quo) who end up blocking or delaying strategic initiatives.  

The organizational culture, then, largely determines whether a new strategic initiative will be successful or end up failing.  If the culture is such that the organization is resistant to change or tied to strongly to the past, the initiative will undoubtedly fail.  However, if the culture is more entrepreneurial or innovative in nature, new initiatives will be embraced and ultimately successful.  Adam Bryant writes further, "Constructed properly, a healthy culture will reinforce the articulated values and the specific behaviors that leaders expect from all employees."

Christy Lake, Chief People Officer at Twilio, referred to culture as the operating system that keeps the organization on track to execute on strategy.  "It's like your phone's operating system - it works invisibly in the background to connect your apps and help you get things done.  You also expect it to be regularly updated with enhancements, performance improvements, and new features.  The same is true for compan culture.  The operating system needs to be updated to ensure that it's staying current with where the company is and where it is going."

Jacob Engel, writing for Forbes, offered three key points leaders need to bear in mind in order to make sure that the organizational culture is aligned with its strategy:

1. Culture is created by the behaviors you tolerate.  I've talked about this before in the past (see "What you permit, you promote...").  At that time, I was referring more to disruptive behaviors and incivility in the workplace, but the same is also true for a creating a culture that embraces change versus one that not just resists change, but fights it.  As I have also said before, "The need for change is not an indictment of the past".  Leaders that fight change in order to preserve the status quo are not leaders.  As Jim Collins recommends in his book Good to Great, "First Who, Then What", it's all about getting the right people on the bus.

2. Change starts at the top.  I would agree that change has to start at the top.  However, not everyone is a CEO in the organization.  The middle managers need to embrace change as well (see key point #1 above), so that they do not become part of the "frozen middle".  As Jacob Engel suggests, "You can't expect your people to change if you're not willing to change first."  Get on the bus or go home.

3. The leader needs to recognize that they are a "voice" around the table, not "the voice".  Again, Engels writes "Culture is one of those intangibles that is very hard to define but needs to be designed and implemented - and never by default."  Leaders need to listen honestly, even to those who provide a dissenting opinion.  Ultimately, the leaders have to make the right decision for the organization, but they need to make sure that people feel like they've had a chance to provide input (which is one important aspect of the High Reliability Organization principle of Deference to Expertise).  While I 100% agree, leaders in the organization also have to pay attention to the first two points above.  

Again, Jim Collins explains how leaders in "Good to Great" organizations focus on the "First Who, Then What" principle.  He writes, "Those who build great organizations make sure they have the right people on the bus and the right people in the key seats before they figure out where to drive the bus. They always think first about who and then about what. When facing chaos and uncertainty, and you cannot possibly predict what's coming around the corner, your best "strategy" is to have a busload of people who can adapt to and perform brilliantly no matter what comes next. Great vision without great people is irrelevant."