Saving Workplace Culture

How do we create cultures where people are happy? Or is it how do we make people happy in order to create a good culture? And I wonder if maybe at times we've got it backwards and ask the question, what is culture? How do we define it? And I think one of the first things we've got to do is think about what culture isn't. And there's two things we've got to understand about culture and that I believe that it's not one. It's not a collection of personal preferences. Things like bring your dog to work, unlimited vacation. There's nothing wrong with those things. But the reality is those are perks. Although they may be loosely connected at times to culture, those are actually not indicative of culture. The second thing we've got to understand about culture is the purpose of culture is not to make people happy. The purpose of culture is to create an environment where more people choose to be happy. Because I think, again, we've got some of the idea around culture backwards. So if that's truly the case, just stick with me on this for a second. What are the pieces that actually make up culture? What are some of the truths I believe that we've got to look at when it comes to culture? Think about Zappos, for instance. Think about the Phoenix Suns basketball team. Think about the Navy SEALs, organizations that have cultures where people want to go to, they'll work really hard to get into. And the performance of those organizations have very effective cultures. The results show as well. People want to get in. And that particular organization has the results that are needed. What are some of the commonalities? I think there's at least four. The first one is very clear. Mission is king. Let me say that again. Mission is is king. In all of those examples and thousands of others, the CEO isn't king. The customer technically isn't king. Because if it is, which customer? The mission of the organization is king. In Zappos, the customer experience was king. When it comes to the Phoenix Suns winning the game was king. For the Navy SEALs, either retrieving somebody or killing somebody very clearly is king. The problem is, in too many organizations with dysfunctional cultures, something else is king. And decisions. They don't know how to make decisions. Unfortunately, in those effective cultures, the mission is king. Not a altruistic thing, but a practical mission is king. We've got to keep that clear. Does not create a good culture. The cause and effect we have to understand. The mission drives the happiness. The happiness does not drive the culture. And in this day and age, we're spending so much time addressing the effect. We're not focused on the cause, but there's two other truths that we know we need to focus on when it comes to culture. And they're more touchy feely words. But there's so much truth to both of them. Number one, it's build safety. And number two, it's the idea of vulnerability. Now I have a hard time with this idea of building safety. But what I've realized, even in my own experience, in my own organization, when you go into these effective cultures, you can sense this idea of safety. For example, if you go into a meeting where you've got leaders and non leaders into an organization, sometimes you can't even tell who the leaders or the non leaders are because everybody's able to ask questions of each other, everybody's able to see suggest new ideas, everybody's able to give input without fear of offending somebody else. Think about it in your organization and it all drives back to mission as being king. If mission is the king, this idea of safety automatically happens. Is that happening in your organization? And the last piece is this whole idea of vulnerability. Opening the door to say we may not know everything is a hallmark of organizations like Zappos teams like the Phoenix Suns and like the Navy seals. They have to rely on each other to get the mission done. They have to be completely vulnerable and understanding that of the six people in that group, they can't do it without each other. We've got to look at culture completely different. It's not about making people happy. It's about focusing on something clear, recruiting people to that mission that will make them happy, give them the opportunity to choose that. Stop focusing on the effect and focus on the cause.