In any environment, it pays to be keenly aware of what’s going on around you. This is certainly the case when you are navigating a new work environment. The more you observe how people interact with one another and how important projects and tasks get done, the better you will be able to shine in your professional role. However, even before accepting a new position, it is important to identify any inappropriate elements of the company’s culture that may conflict with your own value system.
What Is Culture?
Culture is an organization’s identity. It’s a somewhat elusive concept because you can’t measure it. In essence, it’s the “vibe” of an organization. It’s the atmosphere, the environment, the “feel” of a company.
Sometimes people think a company’s culture is all about the perks it offers, but a culture is much more than that. Culture encompasses the values, mission, and vision of a company’s leaders.
Natalie Baumgartner, PhD, is the Chief Workforce Scientist for an employee-engagement platform called Achievers. She says it’s important for a company’s culture to be defined in a very simple and accessible way so everyone from the CEO all the way down to the junior-most employee can understand it. Baumgartner writes, “Culture is really the small set of values that determine how you do things in your organization on a daily basis. These values should drive the three main buckets of business behavior: how you communicate, what you prioritize, and what gets rewarded.”
Why It’s Important to Understand a Company’s Culture
Every company has a unique culture. The more aware you are of the culture in your organization, the more easily you will be able to understand it, navigate it, and contribute to it. It takes some level of immersion into the organization and curiosity to acquire this knowledge.
One way to discover your company’s culture and how things get accomplished is by networking throughout the company, with people at all different levels of the corporate hierarchy. The knowledge you gain about your organization and its culture will greatly facilitate your transition to increased responsibility.
Contribute Value Throughout the Company
As you interface with those in your network, consider ways in which you can offer your assistance to others outside your own departmental contacts.
For several years as president of New York Life, I arranged monthly breakfast meetings with six or seven employees from different departments, most of whom didn’t know each other. At those meetings, I talked about the company’s recent successes and strategies and then asked each person to introduce himself or herself and elaborate on the following topics:
- Their role within the organization
- How they personally contribute to the mission of the organization
It was an engaging activity, and the feedback I received from those sessions was remarkably strong. Most attendees indicated that they had learned a lot they hadn’t known about the company and about their colleagues. In many cases, long-term, highly productive cross- departmental relationships developed.
Key Points
- Culture is an organization’s identity. Culture encompasses the values, mission, and vision of a company’s leaders.
- Culture is really the small set of values that determine how you do things in your organization on a daily basis. These values should drive how you communicate, what you prioritize, and what gets rewarded.
- As you learn more about your company’s culture and how things get accomplished, ideation (a process for bringing forth innovative or creative new ideas) can be a great way for you to gain recognition and visibility within your department and beyond.
- Learning the nature of your company’s culture can be an important prerequisite for understanding the company’s strategies and for developing your own strategic thinking capability.
Action Steps
- As suggested in the prior blog, make sure you promptly distinguish yourself from your colleagues by memorizing your company’s mission and vision statements. Don’t recite them to anyone, but rather, allude to them when discussing how various projects and initiatives might contribute to the mission or vision. Few people take the time to do this, and once you do it, you will deliver instant value in the eyes of your leaders and peers.
- To discover your company’s culture and how things get accomplished, network throughout the company with people at all different levels of the corporate hierarchy.
- As you build your network, ask your colleagues in your own department and those in other departments the following questions. Questions like these are excellent conversation-starters and will also demonstrate your interest in your coworkers.
- What is your role and your place within the organizational structure?
- How do you contribute to the organization’s mission?
- What are some of your recent successes?
- What are some frustrations you have experienced?
- What projects have you worked on (or are now working on) that have required interfacing with other departments?
- If multiple departments take part in major projects, how is that effort coordinated, who has authority to make decisions, and are there any matrix- reporting relationships (i.e., situations in which an employee has a split reporting relationship to more than one boss).
- Does our company have a formal process for bringing forth innovative or creative new ideas? (This is sometimes referred to as ideation.)
- What are your candid views about how the process is working, and in what ways do you believe the process could be improved?
After your conversations with your coworkers (not during them), jot down some key points that you learned while speaking with each coworker.
The Process May Commence During Your Job Interview
Even before you accept a new position, learn what you can about a company’s culture by doing your own pre-interview research. Then during interviews, ask the interviewers how they would describe the corporate culture. Any element of a corporate culture that seems at odds with your beliefs or values should be an indication that the company is not acting in concert with your own values. Factor this heavily into your decision to accept or decline the job offer.
One Response
This is an outstanding and a timely one for my current situation. I am in the middle of accepting an offer of employment with a new organization and the issue of “culture” came up in my interview. I love the way you provided action steps that I can actually use on day one. I encourage you to continue to write similar articles, as this one helped me tremendously!