Unraveling the misconceptions that often shackle culture leaders, we delve into five pervasive myths. By debunking these, we pave the way for progress, enabling leaders to foster a more dynamic, inclusive, and forward-thinking organizational culture.
Work hybrid or in the office
This oversimplification misses the opportunity to evolve company culture
- Companies assume employees are the same shape they were in February 2020, not recognizing the changes of the past 16 months
- There are two options
- Try to grab the second trapeze and evolve approaches to work
- Experiment with different options, and trust the safety net
Myth 1: We can ‘fix’ culture
Culture continually shifts and is reinforced or discouraged through the actions of each employee.
- You are never done shaping culture. Healthy cultures are agile enough to make real-time adjustments to support the employee and business outcomes.
Myth 5: If we send out a culture survey now it will be negative
Culture surveys shouldn’t be sent to only provide positive responses
Myth 2: Virtual or hybrid work erodes culture or causes the loss of culture
If your culture isn’t working, it is a symptom of larger issues
- You just either didn’t notice or didn’t experience enough discomfort to make changes
- Things not working in your culture will surface again until you address them
What leaders can do now
Don’t solve complex problems with binary options
- Embrace experimentation
- Test different configurations of work location at the team level
- Reframe problems into “How might we…”
- Take a hard look at your meetings
- Teams should protect meetings for discussions and decision-making, not updates
- There is no perfect design or location for work
Myth 3: There is a perfect organizational design
Focus less on the design and more on equipping leaders and teams to be agile across a variety of circumstances
Myth 4: Leaders have to see their employees to control their work
If leaders have to physically see employees, their company hasn’t equipped them with expectations or skills to be effective
