“Culture eats strategy for breakfast.”
Strategy. Probably the most used and abused word in business. The Oxford English Dictionary definition works for me: “a plan of action designed to achieve a long-term or overall aim”.
Culture. My simple, perhaps simplistic definition: “the way we do things around here”. This definition does need a little explanation.
To me the way we do things around here is nothing to do with what we say we value but everything to do with what we do. It is little to do with what is said from the platform and a lot to do with the way in which we interact on a daily basis. If I was to sophisticate my definition I might say culture is “our values expressed through the way we do things around here”.
Then I would like to add one more ingredient to the mix and that is culture is not just the way we do things around here but the way we feel about the way we do things around here. You might argue the way we feel is not so much culture as morale and you would be right but I believe “the way we do things around here” and “the way we feel about the way we do things around here” are so closely linked as to be virtually inseparable under the heading of culture.
I am not suggesting my objective as a leader is to make sure everyone is happy. I suspect some leaders have died trying that. As the saying misquoting Lincoln goes you can’t please all the people all the time. But what I am saying is leaders would do well to pay attention to how people are feeling particularly during times of change. As an aside this is why I believe it is vitally important HR is strongly represented at board level. Not that the so-called “people agenda” is exclusively the remit of the HR director but this person plays a critical role in ensuring the way people feel is acknowledged in any discussion about strategy.
So all of that said, back to the point and back to Drucker’s quote which really struck a chord with me and here’s why.
I believe most leaders focus too much on strategy and too little on culture and this undermines their ability to successfully lead the organisation they serve and help it reach its intended destination. I’ve seen this play out in a positive and not so positive way in both church and business.
I should say while this is not about “either or” but “both and” it is also not so much about tension but order. In other words culture first.
“More things happen by accident when the environmental conditions are right than ever happen by design when they are not.”
For “environmental conditions” read culture and for “design” read strategy. In other words: focus on maintaining a healthy culture and more things happen as a result of nature than happen through strategic intent when the culture is unhealthy.
Another way of looking at this is by distinguishing between goals and fruit. To what extent does a fruit tree have a strategic goal? The gardener may have a strategic goal but the tree simply bears fruit. The outworking of the gardener’s strategic goal is reflected in the attention they pay to the environmental conditions which encourage the right kind of growth. Put simply: strategy should pay attention to culture; cultural transformation is itself a strategy.
At the risk of introducing yet another analogy Stephen Covey in his book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People refers to what I call the golden goose habit. This is the tendency in leaders to focus on productivity (the golden eggs) and neglect the means of production (the goose). I am not sure any leader sets out to kill the golden goose but they often end up slow cooking it through neglect and wonder why their fine strategy for producing golden eggs fails. Combing the wisdom of Drucker with Covey we end up with “goose eats eggs for breakfast” – I did warn you all analogies eventually break down!
I’ll finish with one more analogy and then I must have exhausted them and you in the process. I think about strategy as the route we have decided to take to reach our intended destination. Culture speaks to the vehicle we choose to use to get us there. The fact we have a destination in mind and have clear set of directions is in and of itself no guarantee we will arrive especially if there is no air in the tyres, we are out of oil and there is no petrol in the tank. In this case Drucker’s quote becomes “car eats map for breakfast”. Time to stop methinks!
