I’ve been asked to run another session on the importance of boards focusing on the culture of the organisations where they are directors. So as I sat down with my blank screen, I decided to concentrate my mind on the subject in poetic form, boiling it down to its essence. Here’s what emerged.
Too often as I sit on boards I hear my colleagues silent on this topic of culture. They’re so concerned with compliance, oversight and risk, as stern parents expecting to slap the wrists of their irresponsible children.
Their time horizons are limited to the last and next quarters – OK, at a stretch to a whole year – and they focus on hammering weaknesses and threats, with not enough attention paid to opportunities and aspirations, passions and strengths.
They sub-optimise to the short-term, not bothering about longer-term sustainability, while proudly imagining they are champions of good governance.
People tell us that “culture eats strategy for breakfast”, But no – it’s not either/or, not a zero-sum game. There must be a culture strategy within an overall one, where they integrate together and synergise.
But what is culture, anyway? It’s “the way we do things round here”. It’s the way we behave, as a reflection of our attitudes and beneath that of our values. And how we behave either makes us more or less happy, engaged… and productive.
So how do we influence behaviour patterns, ones that have long been the norm? How do we celebrate uplifting behaviour and keep it going?
Much more challenging, how do we get rid of dysfunctional behaviour, knowing that comfort zones will be exceeded?
We must expand those comfort zones, fill them with excitement rather than anxiety about that new future, allowing it to shine.
We must nurture both competence and confidence, having them in balance within themselves and with each other.
Are we humble enough, but not excessively so? Do we align our confidence with our humility, knowing we are not a know-it-all, asking much more than telling?
