Culture-Does it give your business wings?
In life, I have found that there are things that I struggle to define but I know it when I see it. These concepts are often abstract and subjective and as such difficult to reach a common understanding around. Culture, specifically organizational culture, is a great example of one of these concepts.
Organizational culture is touted by management consultants the world over as one of the primary factors that impact corporate success or failure (as evidenced by organizations such as Google or Enron). Yet how do you define your culture in a way that is meaningful to your employees, is actionable(ie. new recruits can learn), and generates positive impacts. On the negative side how can you adapt your culture to mitigate negatives and accentuate positives.
What is culture? In my mind it is in its broadest sense is cultivated behavior; that is the totality of a person's learned, accumulated experience which is socially transmitted, or more briefly, behavior through social learning. Culture is symbolic communication through a group's skills, knowledge, attitudes, values, and motives. It is a collective programming of the mind that distinguishes the members of one group or category of people from another. Culture consists of what is professed, acted on, and perceived by members of the group. In the corporate context it takes many forms. Recently I was reading an article about Zappos, whose culture is defined by customer service.
This organization takes it far beyond any other that I have seen (check out this article http://www.nurvinteractive.com/?p=58).
As a karmic business person culture represents a powerful opportunity for creating foreseeable consequences in your organization. For example if you were looking to build a culture of Operational effectiveness you might do the following:
1. Instill KPI's around operational effectiveness along with rewards
2. Begin a process of social learning where groups talk about how they achieved operational efficiencies in their organizations and the benefits they got from them.
3. Build organizational structures that empower every employee to make immediate decisions that reinforce the culture of effectiveness and efficiency, at the micro and macro level.
4. Set up leadership positions and career paths around the skills, knowledge, attitude, and values of the culture.
If this sounds familiar-it should. This is exactly what GE did when they implemented six sigma. The karmic manager knows that culture isn't accidental it is the result of a considered process. Leaders need to be purposeful about the building of culture based on corporate direction. The foreseeable consequence of this activity is a culture that sustains the organization and lifts it to new heights.
Moment of Zen
“May we be fearless... from friends and enemies...from known and unknown ... from night and day...May all the directions be our allies.”-Atharva Vedas (hindu scripture)
P.S. If you are interested in leveraging the karmic philosophy to accelerate your career or business please check out my website http://www.karmiccoach.com , and get Karma working for you!
Organizational culture is touted by management consultants the world over as one of the primary factors that impact corporate success or failure (as evidenced by organizations such as Google or Enron). Yet how do you define your culture in a way that is meaningful to your employees, is actionable(ie. new recruits can learn), and generates positive impacts. On the negative side how can you adapt your culture to mitigate negatives and accentuate positives.
What is culture? In my mind it is in its broadest sense is cultivated behavior; that is the totality of a person's learned, accumulated experience which is socially transmitted, or more briefly, behavior through social learning. Culture is symbolic communication through a group's skills, knowledge, attitudes, values, and motives. It is a collective programming of the mind that distinguishes the members of one group or category of people from another. Culture consists of what is professed, acted on, and perceived by members of the group. In the corporate context it takes many forms. Recently I was reading an article about Zappos, whose culture is defined by customer service.
This organization takes it far beyond any other that I have seen (check out this article http://www.nurvinteractive.com/?p=58).
As a karmic business person culture represents a powerful opportunity for creating foreseeable consequences in your organization. For example if you were looking to build a culture of Operational effectiveness you might do the following:
1. Instill KPI's around operational effectiveness along with rewards
2. Begin a process of social learning where groups talk about how they achieved operational efficiencies in their organizations and the benefits they got from them.
3. Build organizational structures that empower every employee to make immediate decisions that reinforce the culture of effectiveness and efficiency, at the micro and macro level.
4. Set up leadership positions and career paths around the skills, knowledge, attitude, and values of the culture.
If this sounds familiar-it should. This is exactly what GE did when they implemented six sigma. The karmic manager knows that culture isn't accidental it is the result of a considered process. Leaders need to be purposeful about the building of culture based on corporate direction. The foreseeable consequence of this activity is a culture that sustains the organization and lifts it to new heights.
Moment of Zen
“May we be fearless... from friends and enemies...from known and unknown ... from night and day...May all the directions be our allies.”-Atharva Vedas (hindu scripture)
P.S. If you are interested in leveraging the karmic philosophy to accelerate your career or business please check out my website http://www.karmiccoach.com , and get Karma working for you!
Posted by Dinesh Kandanchatha at 6/10/2009 2:27 PM 
Categories: Business
Tags: sales management Sales Coaching Sales Strategy Sales process
Categories: Business
Tags: sales management Sales Coaching Sales Strategy Sales process
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