Last episode, we unpacked the idea of the journey and how the customer experienced the strategy and the standard operating procedures work together to deliver the vision. In this episode, we're gonna talk about the culture and end with a very interesting question. Is your culture defined more by autonomy or anarchy?

Make Work Not Suck. Our podcast that talks about exactly that, our process, vision, journey, culture, and results. We present real-world business solutions that make the difference. Our goal is to make work not suck, mostly by Ryan Hodges, co-host Daniel Steere. Join us each episode and make work not suck.

Welcome to the Make Work Not Suck podcast.

To Ryan: Slice number three is culture. We're working our way around the clock, right? Work our way around the wheel. Two o'clock, customer experience, customer journey. Three o'clock is strategy, four o'clock, standard operating procedures. So now we're moving into that kind of bottom slice there. Uh, what is that? Five, six, seven o'clock is culture. What all's included in that culture metric?

So culture, going back to the psychology side, is the social emotional side of the equation. It's how we behave as a community, as a group. You know? And every organization has a culture, whether it's the culture you believe, or the culture that you actually have built. And in some cases you've got microcultures, and especially very large organizations, you know, you'll have, you'll have pocketed, you know, even geographically.

So, sure. You know, it's really how we behave in a cluster of people. And what that means in an organization. As you get to, I guess, what was that? Was that the five o'clock? It was five, six, and seven.

Five. So, so the five o'clock, that's really connecting people to the processes. That's how the people do the things in alignment with the culture and the, because 'cause four was the standard operating procedure. So five would be like roles and responsibilities.

Roles and responsibilities. Thank you. Yes. Job descriptions. Job descriptions. Okay. How you fit into that to do those SOPs. Thank you. You, you sure pulled it out. Yeah, that makes sense. And then in that, that six o'clock, that is the actual culture. Like how do people behave when they're on meetings? You know? Does everybody turn their camera on for Zoom? Do they...

Oh, okay. You know, we might have, I can't tell you how many companies I've been into, and they're like, we turn our cameras on for all Zoom meetings and then half the people never turn their camera on. Right. And it's like, oh, well, this, or, oh, well, that, well, it's, it's what you allow. Right? Right. You know, if the exception becomes the rule, then it's no longer the exception.

So it's kind of the values or the behaviors that govern your culture. Correct. Correct. 'Cause there's what you believe the culture is, then there's how it actually is. And then as you get to the seven o'clock, that is more of like the performance of the culture.

Okay. That's where you get into your, you know, individual KPIs and metrics on how individual people are performing. It's connecting the culture to the results side, the equation to the results equation, which is the next, kind of the last quadrant, you know, the first part of the slice on the five o'clock is the roles and responsibilities as it relates to the journey.

To the journey. Yeah. And on the, I guess that'd be what six, seven o'clock is, is the KPIs and performance of how they're doing that as it relates into the results of the business. So kind of, it's, it's not a clean line. There's kind of a blurred line there at the transition start, after you start the transition, transition and then like say that six o'clock mark is really how you're behaving, how you celebrate, how you're, how you actually are performing.

And that's, that's the thing that's visible. That's where people are outside your organization. That's where the gossip comes out.

Hmm. That's where, um, I'm trying to draw on a blank at the moment. 'Cause you know, obviously I have to come up with an example, but that's where, uh, you know, airlines...

Okay. Airlines right now, you know, oh man, that flight was horrible. The flight attendant did this, uh, you know, or the staff did that, or oh my gosh. I, the wait staff was just sta or the wait staff. I'm sorry, the ground crew were just standing around when the airplane pulled up. I just came back from Europe, so this is fresh in my mind.

Okay. All, all very fresh. Well, I'll even give you one that this is, uh, this is an interesting one. I was in Sofia Bulgaria, and I was on my way to London and something had happened where all these flights were delayed. Okay. And the, this group of British people were really pissed off about whatever was going on. And you could tell there was this, this culture disconnect between the passengers of the plane. Okay. Uh, but the, the, uh, I forget the, the, the head, the head flight attendant there. Okay. I forget the technical name for it. Um, but that lady stepped in and unified the culture of the plane, and actually, I don't wanna say stood their ground against the customer, but the customers were being a bit...

Okay. I mean, I was ready to stand up and say something because I was about to miss my flight to London because they were being whiny babies. But, um, in that moment, that culture stood, uh, rallied together, and they understood that the customers were frustrated. They used, uh, calm and courteous, uh, tones. They tried to deescalate the situation, and they still served with care. Okay. And that was, you know, again, this was, uh, on a British Airways flight falling from Sofia to London. And you know, again, these people are far away from their corporate office. They're in a foreign country. Sure. And yet they still held that unique culture.

So I don't know what the cultures and core value of British Airways are, but I can tell you how those flight attendants and that flight crew operated there, and I was very impressed with how they handled it with the belligerent customers.

Yeah. And so, so that kind of leads me to, to my next question of like, I'd love to hear some examples, uh, additional examples of companies that have, uh, strong culture that do it well, and maybe some examples of companies that, that don't do it well.

Um, I'll give you a second to think. I've got one. So there's a nonprofit that I've worked with, and they are very strong culture that the challenge for them is that they don't really have a clear strategy. They try to be all things to all people. And, uh, and they get along really well, but they're not really clear on what it would look like for them to be successful. And it actually ends up hurting their culture in the long run. And so they're strong on culture, but it can actually be, you know, kind of a make work not suck situation because they're so strong on culture, they must be weak in some other areas and that that's actually creating some problems for them.

Yep. Yeah. It's, it's, it culture is one of those. I mean, you know, what is it? Culture, uh, culture trump's strategy for breakfast. Culture eats strategy for breakfast. Breakfast. That's right. Drucker. Drucker, okay. Thank you. I said it, I didn't say it right. It, it, there's a reason why that quote exists and there's a reason why culture is, is so important.

Now, you gotta remember there is a balance between what we believe our culture is and what it actually is. Mm-Hmm. But there's a guy that's in a peer group that I was in, and he has a trailer manufacturing company. Okay. And, uh, he took it over from the family and he's done amazing things with it.

Well, in, in the town he's in, ironically, this small town outside of Dallas, Texas, uh, is like the two main major multi-billion dollar players next to him. And, you know, he's eating their market share like crazy. And it's because of the culture.

Wow. He has a line of welders willing that just wanna work for 'em, where the other companies can't get welders because, and here's the crazy thing, based, uh, and, and he's won, you know, awards for this. And he has been, um, uh, there's just a lot of great that's going on in this, in our organization. Here it is. People want to work for that company because they know that they're looking out for them, they're invested in them, they're taking care of them. And guess what? If they feel, if the employee feels vested by the company, then they're gonna do good work. Guess what? Those trailers probably have...

The welding is more on point. Oh, I'm, they have less, I'm sure they're better made higher quality products, better made higher quality, no, less rework. Um, you know what's interesting is, is on their, their social media, they act, they advertise, uh, I'm sure they do advertising, just general marketing stuff, but they do a lot of advertising of their culture.

Hmm. And they actually get a lot of sales. And the distributors that, that sell their product, they're, they're, they like the fact that they can see the people building the trailers. And that actually helps them better sell their trailers to the end consumer. Wow. That's fantastic. So you asked me earlier, you know, some of the companies that do it well, and that's one that does it very well. Um, you know, now contrast that with, uh, I mean, again, I've, I've been in some companies where the culture is so toxic that it's a, you know, it's just a hot mess. Yeah. And...

And it doesn't matter what they say about their culture. It doesn't matter what they do. It's just not a good environment. And you can tell, you can, you can feel it when you walk in the door. And it's one of those things that, you know, you get the feeling of a company's culture by how they treat their people.

Mm. And that's, you know, at the end of the day, it's not what you say your culture is. It's how you act. And that, uh, you know, there's, there's just those elements of it. And there's, there's some great stuff that happens, um, you know, where people just, you know, you have high quality folks that are working, and you, and you treat them well.

They will go out and do amazing things. They, they will go out and treat your customers, right. Your, your vendors will be like, okay, I like working with these people. It's just, there's a synergy that happens when you've got a great culture. There's just a magic to it. Right. Right. Yeah. And so you mentioned this concept of like, autonomy versus anarchy. Yeah. What do you mean by that? And how does that tie into culture?

So, in my experience, um, what autonomy looks like in a culture is that you, you, you're providing people with the ability to make decisions on their own and their job. You know, they have a high degree of empowerment, you know, and this is where you're gonna have, uh, some high performance individuals and you might even have a lot of small teams that are working in a decentralized way. Sure. And they're, they're given the ability to make decisions and implement things and, you know, kind of take the lead on their area of expertise. And that is autonomy. You have a culture where people are empowered.

Okay. Anarchy is where there is no centralized leadership, or there's no centralization of goals and objectives. And so it's kind of like a free for all. Sure. Where everybody's just trying to figure out, there's no clear direction. There's no clear leadership. There's no clear communication. There's no, there's no unity. There's no coordination.

And so people are kind of doing their own thing. And you might see this when you have like really high turnover or really high stress, or just there's no clear direction. That's an anarchy situation.

Wow. Yeah. I guess I could see that. I think I've been in a few places where it's kind of felt like anarchy.

Yeah. I think we all have. We've seen, we've seen that. And, you know, it's, it's one of those things where, um, there has to be some sort of centralization, but there has to be also a clear line of accountability and how people are empowered to make decisions, but it's not a free for all. Okay. And so there has to be that balance between autonomy and control. Right.

You know, it's, it's not about controlling every little detail. It's about having a clear vision, a clear strategy, a clear direction, and then empowering people within that framework to be able to do their best work and, and be successful and then holding them accountable to the results. So, so this kind of brings us to the close of this episode. The key takeaways here are, number one, culture is crucial. It's about how we behave as a group and how we achieve the results. Number two, understanding the difference between autonomy and anarchy is important. You want a culture that empowers people but doesn’t let things devolve into chaos. And finally, number three, always ensure that there is a clear vision, strategy, and performance metrics to support a positive and effective culture.

Thanks for joining us on this episode of Make Work Not Suck. Tune in next time when we’ll be diving into how to leverage technology to enhance your business processes and culture. Until then, remember to keep making work not suck.