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I could potentially write 10 million words on work culture — and perhaps some day in the (still distant) future, I will. For now, though, here’s a blog about work culture. It’s a topic near and dear to my heart. I went to graduate business school for ‘organizational development’ because I cared about work culture. I could have gone for a traditional MBA but truth be told, I don’t care that much about finance and operations. (“Just as long as I getting paid, yo!”) Work culture shapes everything else, IMHO. And yet, we pay very little attention to it. Why is that? And what can be done? Let’s explore.
Why your work culture sucks: A violation of core business tenets
All organizations are different. By that logic, all organizations have a different work culture. So everything that will be said here may not totally apply to you. We good so far? Yay.
Work has several fundamental flaws. One of them, especially in for-profit companies, is myopia. Companies are often set up on quarterly systems. As a result, it’s all about now now now. You gotta “make the quarter.” I just got laid off from a privately-held company (not beholden to investors at base) and the work culture was the same there. In short, daily tasks murdered any focus on strategy at most places.
