How culture can help you reach your business goals
People and culture are the most important assets in every successful company. But how can you actively lead culture in the direction that supports your business and gets you where you want to be?
By Enna Kursukangas
How culture can help you reach your business goals
People and culture are the most important assets in every successful company. But how can you actively lead culture in the direction that supports your business and gets you where you want to be?
By Enna Kursukangas
Without people, companies would be empty. And without a consciously driven culture, it’s hard to harness the full potential of an organisation and deliver the results the company aims for. But how can we define what culture is?
There are plenty of suggestions out there. My favourite is one of the simplest ones I’ve heard: “It’s what happens when no one is watching.” Culture is what we do, it’s about our habits, our values and the unwritten rules that affect our actions. On a more practical level, the things that help us to build a culture include the way we lead, how we set targets and prioritise, how we organise ourselves and so on.
Culture develops every day
Everything we do and don’t do affects our culture, and on the other hand, our culture affects how we do things. Culture is not something that changes overnight; it’s something that continues to develop every day.
Over the past 20 years, I’ve worked in companies of different sizes, different industries and different business situations. I’ve learned that no matter if it is a startup, a huge corporation, or a company in growth or decline, some things have proven to be universally relevant when talking about the importance of a culture and how to build it. Here are my key learnings on why culture is so crucial to all companies.
Everything we do and don’t do affects our culture, and on the other hand, our culture affects how we do things.
Everything we do and don’t do affects our culture, and on the other hand, our culture affects how we do things.
There is always a culture, no matter what we do about it. But by making conscious decisions, we can have the kind of culture that enables us to get to where we want to be.
Company strategies tell us where to go, and culture makes sure we get there. Culture is a tool for a company to achieve what it’s after. It’s never a destination, but without actively leading culture, it’s much harder to get to the intended destination.
It’s in your goals
Everything we do represents the culture we have. It’s not soft. It’s not hard. It’s all that and everything in between. It’s in your goals, it’s in your walls, in your websites and in your daily decisions. It’s present when you hire as well as when you need to fire. You can’t separate the culture from anything you do. It affects your actions, and every action affects your culture.
It’s easy to see why culture is an important asset and something you should actively lead within your organisation. But how do you do that? How do you take control of something so organic and something that is so hard to measure? The truth is that you can’t control it, but you can, and you should, actively lead it in the direction that helps your business get to where you want to be.
You should be loud about what kind of culture you aim for and co-design the structures that help you achieve it.
You should be loud about what kind of culture you aim for and co-design the structures that help you achieve it.
Discover your current culture. To take an active role in leading culture, it’s best to start with understanding the current culture and what it is that you want to achieve as a company. And the best way to get to know your culture is by observing it and gathering different views on it. This should be ongoing work within the company, especially if you have a change need. At these times, it can be useful to seek external support to capture your current culture. Since all employees are part of the culture, it might be hard to see the unique traits you have within that culture from the inside.
Define what kind of culture you need and want. To take steps in this cultural journey, we need to define what kind of culture we need to achieve our goals. When defining, there are two important things to take into consideration. First, it’s hard to build a strong culture that attracts everyone. And there is no need for that either. Targeted culture should be built for the talents you need for your business to succeed. Second, culture is a tool to get to where you want to go, so make sure that what you define as your target culture, actually ensures you reach your business goals.
A roadmap
Be loud about what kind of culture you aim for and co-design the structures that help you achieve it. You might need a roadmap of initiatives to show the cultural change ahead and how to include people in this cultural work. But don’t trick yourself into believing that cultural change is something you can make happen using only flow charts, project plans or workshops. Instead, use the roadmap to illustrate the change you are leading and to get people on board.
Culture is hard to capture, which is why it’s even more important to focus on concrete initiatives, active communication and dialogue within the organisation. The right initiatives always depend on where the organisation is and what it aims for, but company values, a leadership framework and manager role definitions are concrete cultural building blocks that are helpful.
In Schibsted Nordic Marketplaces, we are in the middle of a major transformation, moving from country-based organisations to a cross-Nordic verticalised organisation. To enable this change, we focused on building a common culture across the Nordics and we co-designed four common values for Marketplaces:
- Make a difference
- Be curious
- Be fearless
- Win together
These values represent what unites us across countries, but also how we work together to really add value for our users, customers and co-workers. And how we build sustainable futures and create success on this shared journey. These values form a strong base for our common culture across the Nordics and they guide our behaviours, decisions and actions. These values give us the strength to lean into our transformation journey, because by continuing to be curious, staying fearless and focusing on winning together, this transformation will happen, and we will make a difference.
Enna Kursukangas
People & Culture Director, Schibsted Nordic Marketplaces
Years in Schibsted: 3
My favourite song the last decade: Cha Cha Cha – Käärijä