Culture & Principles

Culture and Principles :These are two terms that I've become increasingly aware of over the last few years. Organizations often use these terms in attempts to attract talent or enhance the image they uphold in public forums, but what do they truly mean?

Culture: the customary beliefs, social forms, and material traits of a racial, religious, or social group.

Principles: a comprehensive and fundamental law, doctrine, or assumption.

These definitions seem straightforward, yet companies often fall short in understanding the intentionality and relationships necessary to realize both. Saying things like "We have a great company culture" or "We follow these guiding principles" doesn't just make these statements true, regardless of how many times members of leadership say them out loud. Though transparently admitting that these are goals would go a long way, as companies mature, they regularly over-index on very specific aspects they feel are necessary for success, while substituting a focus on the human elements for repeating "Culture & Principles" over and over again.

Fun Fact: People are important and want to feel that they are.

We're humans and it's only natural that we want to feel some form of belonging and purpose in what we do. This is fundamentally what companies attempt to sell the dream of with the promise of "Culture & Principles". As a human, I want to be around people I can learn from, grow from, and on some days, teach. As a human, I'd hope to have someone tell me that they disagree with me; not for the sake of arguing, but because, though we can agree that an outcome is important, maybe we have different opinions on how to achieve it. As a human, I want to know that some days, I won't be at my best, and it's understood that it's okay, because I'm human. When we lose sight of the human element, we tend to think in a binary manner - X cannot exist in the presence of Y. Life isn't meant to be binary, though. Regardless of our ambitions for business outcomes, what does it matter if we overlook the people involved? Let's conduct a quick thought exercise.

Here is a Goal: Company A sells Z and wants to achieve $1 Million in sales this year.

Great - Now who are the individuals selling Z? Z likely needs to be built, so who is building Z? Who are the people buying Z?

If people are removed from this scenario, Z doesn't mean anything - It's a meaningless construct, with no one to build and take pride in it, and no one to buy and appreciate the value it adds to their lives. Company A has "Culture & Principles" tattooed all over their website and even more in the articles written about them though.

But Gerald, companies and the leaders behind them, are just groups of people. True, but when they drift further away from the awareness of this, drawing barb wire fences and concrete barriers between who they are at work, and who they are outside, they forget that we're all really not that different. Each of us has been forged through our very own fires, and in our own respective ways, have achieved our own successes. So why it is that when it comes to "the business", there is a mutual exclusivity between Success and remaining Human - Embracing the Culture; Holding on to the Principles - ? This does not mean there is an absence of accountability. This doesn't mean we will always agree; but it doesn't prevent us from reflecting and identifying areas where we could have made better decisions.

Intentionality and Drive

They are what separates the mediocre from the great. Setting goals, or making commitments without the intention and drive to work towards them, will all but guarantee that you'll be in the same spot tomorrow. The stronger your intention, the more likely your drive will align. Having one without the other almost guarantees missing your target. Again, this isn't a call to dive fully into holding hands and singing Kumbaya all day long (No matter how easy that may sound), but it is an ask to acknowledge that diving fully into business outcomes without considering the people that enable them isn't the way either. Though it seems it shouldn't be necessary, we must consciously and intentionally embrace our humanity. We have to maintain a drive to continue doing it throughout each interaction every day - The same way we do it for achieving business goals. This is what translates the "Culture & Principles" taglines to something meaningful and recognizable.

This seems... Familiar 🤔

I promise, this isn't turning into a political post, but it would be foolish of me not to take an opportunity to point out certain similarities. These concepts aren't easy, and they weren't meant to be. Today, we can watch failures in this area at scale, further highlighting the difficulties simply by reading headlines tied to American politics (or the broader country at large for that matter). As we've drifted further away from remembering that we're all human, our arguments have become binary without reason - It doesn't matter if a differing opinion has merit; if it came out of the mouth of someone aligned with the 'other' party, it has to be wrong... right? When we fully focus on execution and driving these business... I mean political outcomes without remembering that we're all just people, we continue to build our barb wire fences and concrete barriers. We forget that the majority of us would trade it all just for a minute with someone we can never see again. We fail to remember that we've all experienced pain. We forget that we've all climbed our own respective mountains. Imagine harnessing that experience, and the culture of perseverance, one of just wanting to be and mean something, that has been instilled in many of us. Then what happens if we align it with some principles and all agree that we're only human, trying to interact with other humans?

I in no way claim to have all (or any) of the answers. Truthfully, I just hope to see a day when we all stop pretending like 'adulting' is such a cool thing. I'll choose 10,000 conversations about your passion for a specific path, how a particular tool can help achieve a shared goal, and how your experiences brought you here over any all-hands meeting where 'Culture & Principles' are discussed without tangible evidence of them in practice. Let's get back to wearing the capes we'd pretend to wear as kids - because although I've loved, I've lost, I've laughed, I've cried, and had countless human experiences in-between, according to my family at home - I'm still superman, and according to the folks I've worked with, I still take care of business. All of this while embracing the varying cultures I may interact with and help build, and simultaneously holding on to my principles. 🖤