16. What is workplace culture really?

"People frequently confuse the idea of culture with the idea of engagement; culture is the system of the organisation, and engagement is an individual’s experience of that system."

Fiona Robertson is a Culture Change expert who helps leaders create business cultures that attract and retain top talent. She believes that culture is one of the most widely discussed and widely misunderstood concepts in business today. There’s so much activity around it, but not a lot of action in terms of change that actually makes a difference.

Culture is made up of ‘the rules of belonging’; what it takes to blend in, fit in and belong to the group that you join. In any organisation, there is a set of rules, be they spoken or unspoken, that you need to adhere to in order to fit in. Just like the body’s immune system, an organisation’s immune system will very quickly reject a new hire that doesn’t fit in.

When businesses talk about their culture, they talk more in terms of poster slogans and social perks than those unspoken rules that can have a huge impact on job satisfaction and employee retention.

Mission statements, purpose statements and visions are all well and good – they’re SUPPOSED to tell employees what it takes to belong, but they’re rarely a good indicator of a company’s true culture. There can be a massive cognitive dissonance for employees when the company’s mission statement is at odds with the everyday experience of working within the organisation. 

We see this when behaviour that is contrary to the business’ stated ‘culture’ are contravened by someone more senior. Our brains are pattern-identifying machines that are designed to keep us safe, so when we see behaviour surrounding culture that doesn’t line up with what the company-stated values, we don’t feel safe in that organisation.

Behaviour is critical, but interpretation of that behaviour by others in the group is perhaps even more important. In some organisations, the most senior leader will leave meetings early and that will indicate that they are very busy and important and their time is incredibly valuable. In other organisations, this behaviour would be interpreted as incredibly unprofessional and disrespectful to the rest of the team.

The same identical behaviour can be interpreted in two different ways, and it’s the interpretation of that behaviour that determines where culture lives.

So, who chooses the interpretation of the behaviour?

It’s a combination of the reactions of individuals within the group, with more influence naturally given to the team members higher up the organisation hierarchy. 

If the leader of a team is exhibiting poor quality behaviours, this gives other members of the team permission to do the same.

The nexus between culture and strategy is absolutely crucial to the success of an organisation. Fiona sees so many leaders spending time nutting out their strategy, often neglecting to consider the ramifications of that strategy on their teams.

A strategy without the culture to execute it is just a piece of paper.

People aren’t going to use a strategy for their primary decision making unless there has been consideration given to whether the culture can influence the strategy.

There’s so much movement around trying to make culture better, which could perhaps be better described as “trying to make our people happier”. A noble cause, for sure, but it’s often done in the absence of any kind of examination of what kind of culture the organisation needs to build in order to successfully implement the strategy.

We see a lot of attempts from boards and regulators, as they pay more attention to company culture, with lots of attempts to measure culture, which usually results in an engagement survey (which measures engagement, not culture).

The kinds of questions you need to ask if you want to measure culture are things like, "when the boss did that thing / made that decision / took that action, why do you think that was, and what do you think about that?"

A good example of how culture is driven by interpretation is this: If the boss fires someone and the majority of the employees believe that person had acted unethically and the termination was warranted, that action will have a positive effect on the team’s culture. If the majority of employees believe the termination was unfair and due to a personal vendetta, the culture will suffer.

Understanding the interpretation of what is happening is the most important part of all, and very rarely tracked. 

If the interpretation of why a decision was made is different from the intention behind it, issues can arise within teams. The sad news is, it’s very rare for organisations to invest in the type of qualitative research that brings to light these sorts of discrepancies.

It’s quite extraordinary what people will do in the service of their own belonging. In the case of Wells-Fargo, there were such high targets for cross-selling that employees were opening accounts for customers without their consent, transferring tiny amounts of money between them, that 5300 bankers were fired for acting unethically, just to fit in with the company’s ‘high performing’ culture. When belonging comes with a pay cheque, people will do things they would normally believe were out of character.

The latest neuroscience shows us that belonging is more important than food, shelter and water. Our brains are hardwired to recognise that without belonging to a group, we wouldn’t have access to those things previously considered the most important in our hierarchy of needs.

When people adopt the behaviour that is successful in the group they’ve joined – whether that behaviour is ethical or not – they’re doing so because their brain is screaming at them to belong.

What does this mean for women in the workplace? 

While women are making headway in the workplace when it comes to equality, from a success perspective there’s a fundamental impact. A lot of women exhibit the behaviours they see their successful male counterparts exhibit. 

Unfortunately, women are not judged with the same set of criteria as men, so what is assertive in a man is considered aggressive in a woman.

Because we’re starting to get a genuine critical mass of successful female leaders, younger women can look to them for role models to emulate.


So, what should you do if you feel like you don't belong at work?
Lack of belonging doesn’t just feel bad, it can be bad for our immune system and mental health.

The first thing you can do is take note and not dismiss it. If you genuinely feel like you don’t belong, recognise that it IS a problem and then create an action plan. You don’t need a lot of close contacts to feel a sense of belonging, and when you do, create a slightly deeper connection by confiding in them.

The second thing to do is find ways to have fun with each other – while you may hate company drinks, go along with your work friend and try to have a good time.

Thirdly, help others. The act of helping others can make you feel like more of a member of the group and increase your connection.

There's so much more to say around the subject of organisational culture, and I'm sure it's a topic that we'll come back to again and again. 

if you'd like to listen to my conversation with Fiona, you can do so here, and to explore other episodes of the Lady Leadership Podcast, simply click here.