THAT FAMOUS SEVEN-LETTER WORD ...

There’s something about “culture” that everyone wants to own today.

Gigantic corporations are tasking their leaders and managers to figure out how to create genuine, authentic, and entrepreneurial innards, environments that will attract millennials who prefer to work in fast and nimble start-ups.

Ad publications claim, though a handful of case histories, that marketers should own the culture fit bit and make sure that brands reflect company values.  And vice versa. 

Even recruiter Egon Zehnder adds its two cents by revealing its 100-person survey results:  Ninety-five percent believe perceived culture affects the brand.  Sixty percent say culture supports the brand – and   20 percent say it’s an underminer.  Ergo, CMOs need to embrace that word.

Yet culture needs to be owned by the right individual(s).

The creation of culture – and its values – clearly belongs in the province of the leader.  It’s s/he who reflects the organization, shapes (or re-creates) its values, and acts to show the way.  It’s not marketing speak.  Nor solely developed by the CHRO.  And, for sure, not locked up in a wordy company manual.

Culture needs to live, to breathe, and to, if needs be, adjust to current realities.  Companies do, during crises or turnovers, rethink values … and re-cast them, with smart planning, to inspire, motivate, and transition to the new way.  After all, if culture is the way we work around here, why shouldn’t (eventually) everyone own it?

A NEW FOUR-LETTER WORD

They’re everywhere.

Kindles fingered during el trips.  Dog-eared library books read on buses.  Even standing commuters, somehow, managing to peruse a page or two in before business starts.

More than occasionally, books sneak into the workplace. 

There’s a tongue-in-cheek app that disguises tomes in PowerPoint presentations on desktops, ready to close when a manager appears. 

More seriously, a number of companies today boast book clubs, voluntary associations of employees who read and review and discuss selected volumes. 

There’s even an Ohio-based Books@Work nonprofit that deliberately matches nearby college and university professors with companies that want to start, not a book club, but an employee development and idea-sharing habit.

For those of us who devour the word, digital and printed, somehow those ideas aren’t enough.  Sure, we all have to put in eight to 12 hours a day getting stuff done.  And time to squeeze in a book chapter can’t always  fit into the schedule.  At night and on weekends, there’s so much to do that reading – whether literature or business – loses.

But why not dedicate a business hour or two each week to reading?  Not just magazines and news, but literature and non-fiction that will make a difference.  Asking employees to skim and discuss a tome can begin to create the kinds of environments we thrive in, develop the types of colleagues who are curious and communicate well with others, build teams that step up to those big hairy goals we all strive for. 

It’s not too much to ask of a book, is it?