Is Culture a Battle Worth Fighting?
♦ According to a Strategy& survey, 96% say culture change is needed in their organizations, yet over 50% say they need a major culture change but will do little, if anything, about it.
♦ A Korn Ferry study found 32% say their culture does align with their strategy – great! That only leaves 68% that don’t!
♦ Less than 20% of employees are engaged, according to Gallup, meaning nearly 80% are not fully engaged.
So, why bother with Culture? If you don’t work through your culture, it’s highly likely it will work against you, your employees and your organization – whether you’re initiating it or in the midst of any change. Years ago, there was an auto part commercial’s tag line, ‘…you can pay me now…or pay me later.’ Point being, you will one day have to pay a price. The best part is you get to decide when and where!
Some will say, ‘…culture’s a soft phenomenon…something [we] can ignore because we’re busy achieving [our] business goals?’ Seen it. Heard it. How’s it working for you? Hope you understand, when I post direct questions or direct answers, they’re not coming from a point of arrogance or conceit. You don’t know me or my team and I don’t know yours. I do know the pain and the stress you’re going through, been through it many times and what it feels like to come out of the other end of the tunnel seeing the light of day as well as getting run over by that oncoming train.
My first experience was being part of the pre-M&A team of two billion dollar organizations coming together – one sales driven, one operationally driven – and it didn’t work. There’s no better teacher than real-life experience, in my opinion.
‘…it really works. What Scott did for us was simple and practical. I wish I’d decided to ask for help sooner…’ – J. Whitaker, VP/GM – Recreation manufacturing