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Culture Matters More Than You Think

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Hire for culture, not for skills.

Great idea? Focused market? Good financial backing? Skilled employees? You’ve got it all, right? Maybe not. None of that matters one whit unless everybody holds the same core values. The numbers don’t lie – culture is the number one priority if you want to go the distance.

65% of all mergers fail and the #1 reason is because their culture’s clashed. Forget the merger – I believe even a higher percentage of small and local businesses fail because of this issue, without ever getting much past the first employee stage. We almost never pay attention to the things that matter. Why would culture be any different?

We at the Crankset Group always look at culture fit long before we look at skills. And if someone is a clearly better culture fit, I’ll hire them instead of the much more highly skilled person. It’s a no brainer. But most of us still go right to the resume’ (what I call “the tombstone”) to find out all the great things somebody did in their past lives, and never ask, “Will we want to be together 9+ hours a day for years to come?”

The Industrial Age left us with a terrible cultural legacy some have labeled the “allies” model of company culture. It was supposed to be the most evolved, but it doesn’t work.

Here’s six views of “employees” that are common in local (and giant) businesses. See which one is yours:

  1. Employee as enemy – all processes are set up to box them in and treat them like prisoners/numbers. Inmates, I mean employees, are to be mistrusted on the way in.
  2. Hired hand – a necessary evil; we give away tasks to them reluctantly, even though nobody can do it as well as me. We never want them to think, just do tasks.
  3. We are family – the parent/child approach – good luck with that! Do you really want more kids? Some business owners apparently do.
  4. Friends – everyone is on a level plane. Everyone is in charge of everything, therefore, nobody is in charge of anything – “we’re all friends here, right?” Anything with two heads belongs in a circus. Where does something belong with no head?
  5. Allies – The dominant Industrial Age culture. The focus is on the task. Like England, Russia, France, and the U.S. in World War II, we don’t have to like each other; we just need to focus on the task at hand. This is the worst and most advanced form of Industrial Age thinking. Most companies still live here. Let’s just hire for skills. Culture is woo-woo crap.
  6. Business as COMMUNITY – The great companies are already doing this. They believe strongly in why they exist, what they are doing here and where they are going. And they don’t hire people who don’t want the same things. Committed Community is the basis for getting the task done in the new company.

Community has hierarchy – somebody is in charge. But it emphasizes collaboration and true “team” – using agreed upon methodologies to achieve an agreed upon goal. Community imputes trust and creates an environment where everyone is encouraged to take ownership and make a contribution. Community members play clearly defined roles as part of a team, not behind cube walls.

Hire for culture. You can teach anybody a skill, but if they don’t believe in what you do, it’s a short-term gain with long-term pain.

What’s your company culture? And by the way, if there is only one of you right now, that’s the best time to answer the question.

Who WE are is so much more important than who people want us to be. Who are you as a company?

More – Business Is Like Surfing

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Don’t surf with sharks.

  • Take lessons, learn how. – Who’s your business advisor?
  • Never surf alone – Where’s your business community?
  • Don’t surf with sharks – Make your own business rules, don’t play by others’.
  • Stay out of unfamiliar waters – stick to your knitting.
  • Ride one wave at a time – do one thing good first.
  • Watch the weather – pay attention to your market.
  • Balance well – it could all come crashing down quickly.
  • Know where you’re going – plan the next few “steps”.
  • Don’t get distracted waving for the cameras – don’t relax too early.
  • Ride the small waves first – grow into the big ones. Grow into business.
  • Let somebody else make the board – outsource everything.
  • Get advice – Just because you’re wet doesn’t mean there is surf – where is your target market?
  • Know when to jump in – time kills deals.
  • Know when to stay on the beach – big opportunities aren’t always good.
  • Change technique before you decide to quit (it’s not surfing, it’s the way YOU are surfing).
  • Never think you’ve learned it all.
  • Don’t fight a rip tide. – Roll w/ the punches.
  • Know when to go home. – Don’t bet on the come.
  • Paddling is everything – Conation – committed movement in a purposeful direction. – commitment is more important than anything else
  • MOST IMPORTANT – Paddle harder AFTER you get momentum! It’s the only way to catch the wave so you can stop paddling altogether! (see last week’s Business is Like Surfing)

Abundance and Significance – Making More Money in the Participation Age.

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For almost 200 years we were in the Industrial Age, followed by four “Ages” in less than 40 years: The Post-Industrial/Service Age. The Technology Age, the very short 5-10 year Information Age, and what some including me are now calling the Participation Age.

The hallmark of the Participation Age is “Sharing”. Shared technologies, shared information, shared resources, and shared participation in developing new products. But most of all the Participation Age is identified by the re-development of the concept of community – people living and working together toward a common goal.

Linux, Druple communities, interactive media, blogs, and social media such as Twitter and Facebook are all examples of shared community. Independent programmers are meeting for a weekend and developing an application in just a few hours together.

The results? A big one is that we are now in the age of Two-Way Marketing. You can no longer afford to have a one-way “push” message. You must be listening as much or more than talking, asking more questions than you answer, and participating with your community in the development of your brand, not telling people what your brand is.

The Age of Participation – Social Entrepreneurship

An even bigger result is that the best companies will be focused on creating abundance and significance for the owner, the employees and the world around them. They will be returning to what we were taught in kindergarten, to re-learn how to share and participate with others in building a better world.

Besides two-way marketing, alert companies will understand that they can no longer afford to be interesting, but that they now must be interested – finding ways to promote the interests of their customers and their community to increase their profits.

It’s not a foo-foo idea anymore; it is becoming a staple of business. Social entrepreneurship is not a fad. It’s a result of living in the age of participation and the information sharing that is possible as a result. And those companies that put the interests of their customers and community first will make more money.

Selling a product or service doesn’t cut it anymore. Last year Wired Magazine ran a cover story on the need for people to reconnect with the concept of “meaning”. In the eighties the bumper sticker was “He who dies with the most toys wins” and in the nineties we got to try it and found it wanting. In the last ten years we have begun to reconnect with the idea that it’s not “He who dies with the most toys wins”, but “He who lives with the most significant goals wins.”

Great companies in the 21st century will move from Survival, through Success to Significance. And they will do so by changing the business mindset from one of scarcity – “I need to get mine first because there is only so much to go around”; to a mindset of abundance – “I will get mine as I help others get theirs.”

Use your business to do more than make money; you’ll make more money if you do. All the best businesses are growing as they give back. It creates the right leadership mindset for a business to grow.

You either live in a world of abundance or a world of scarcity. Whichever one you choose effects every decision you make.

Have a great finish to 2009 and an abundant and significant start to 2010!