As entrepreneurs or leaders, we often delegate tasks and must trust that these tasks are fulfilled decently. Of course, we hope employees will execute these tasks as we would have.
I often hear the idea from fellow CxOs:
"I can expect this from my employees because they get paid well."
That's correct in regards to the contract people have with their companies. However, we should remember and appreciate the human factor and, in other words, the culture and sub-cultures.
The Dominant Culture - A good and a bad thing - but not appreciable
You always have culture(s) in your company, small little "societies" of humans with relationships and bonds in a good or sometimes a negative way.
You will still see them thriving when you aren't aware of the cultural aspects of your company or teams and don't cultivate those. We don't create cultures, but we can influence them.
Let's take an example of a developer team working together for years. We talked about a group of people who went together through several challenges successes, and sometimes things went wrong.
In each situation, people learned new aspects and improved their skills. The point is that every individual learned that in their current team culture and is highly influenced by it. Thus, the bonds are getting more robust, and the need for communication within the team is getting lower over time.
The sub-culture of the team becomes dominant; everyone is a dedicated part of it.
It sounds great, but it depends on what you want to do with that team.
The positive aspects ✅
Assigning tasks to that team is excellent. The people in such a team are seasoned, used to it, and will execute well. Because they know their context, they know each other. As long as the context is like that, everything is fine.
"The only Constant is Change"
(Heraclitus).
The negative aspects ❌
As great as a deeply bonded culture is, the problematic aspects of a dominant culture become imminent when it comes to changing circumstances like new projects, new technologies, or new people.
Humans are "Creatures of Habit"; we need to change, but we often cannot be bothered with it, and the same applies to a group when too much changes at once.
In the example in the video, which this article is based upon, I talked about a seasoned senior developer who joined a team with a dominant culture and left just some months later. The developer couldn't connect; it was too prevalent, and the character was likely already shaped.
The solution is to cultivate an Open Culture.
How do we fix this at that moment? That's very hard because cultures develop over time. It takes weeks and months, or even years, to fully develop. So you will keep it the same overnight. Thus, you will need more time to fix the foundation; you can only mitigate it in the short term.
The easy way is to put a #culturefirst approach into your company strategy and ensure that every decision and measurement you take is based on the idea that learning and changes are part of daily life.
Cultivate a culture which happily accepts the following aspects:
✅ Continuous Learning - Accept new input from outside
✅ Trial and Error must be appreciated; otherwise, there won't be innovation
✅ "It's okay to mistake or fail," aka a blameless environment because innovation leads to mistakes.
✅ Don't focus on seniors or juniors; focus on the average employee to avoid elitism.
✅ Mentoring - The more senior employees become, the more they shall mentor juniors and the less they should produce themselves.
This list is extendable; it only covers some essential aspects you should consider.
Conclusion
In my first years as an entrepreneur and a tech leader, I needed to focus more on the cultural aspects. Technology and Systems were what I was keen on. But that was never a good idea since everything depended so much on the human factor.
It does not matter which technology you want to implement or if you will extend your teams or try something new; it will depend on the people and culture.
👉 So, make culture part of your strategy.
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