“Dimmi con chi vai e’ ti dirò’ chi sei.”
(“Tell me who you go with and I will tell you who you are.”)
-Italian Proverb
The culture of my first company was very left-brained, quantitative, winner-take-all, and zero-sum: everything was a calculation, anything could be speculated on.
We were traders, so gambling on outcomes was our job, but it influenced our play as well. We would make crazy side-bets in the office on things like which intern could run faster, how long someone could stand on one foot, or who could lose a larger percentage of their total weight over a months-long period. I once even won two hundred bucks betting on whether North Korea would test a nuclear weapon over the weekend.
At the time this all seemed normal; in retrospect, I realize gambling like that was unusual outside my team’s culture—and that a nuclear weapons test, in particular, is a weird thing to bet on.
I realized that the culture of my office had given me a different perspective on how life is supposed to work when I found myself considering paying somebody ahead of me in line at the DMV to switch places. Time was money. Everything and everyone had a price. That’s the heart of capitalism.
I didn’t follow through on my fantasy of paying somebody for their place in line; I was just too uncomfortable. At the time I saw that discomfort as a weakness, but looking back, I’m happy I wasn’t able to reduce a person to a placeholder quite so easily.
Unintentional Mirroring
A team’s culture not only affects who shows up, but it also starts changing new employees as soon as they arrive. From the lingo and dress code to the attitudes presented about work and clients, our behaviors and ideals begin to rub off on one another.
My editor, Tina, reads almost everything I write. She spends hours each week pouring over her clients’ words, shaping them up, and making us sound better. During a meeting with a writer, Tina caught herself using the phrase “growing your awareness,” a phrase I often use both in my speech and writing. She’s noticed other new behaviors too. Our meetings often involve moments of quiet reflection, which she’s begun to incorporate in her own meetings. (She still refuses to leave her eggs on the counter, though.)
We take the concepts and ideas we learn from our work culture into other parts of our lives. It affects our friendships, our romantic relationships, and how we parent our kids. For better or worse, that is how cultures take shape.
An Evolving Environment
Work culture influences who we hire and how they change once we’ve brought them on board, and new additions to the team impact the work environment as well. We shape each other. That’s part of what makes cultural change hard—how sticky it is because of how easy it is to conform.
So how do you change? Well, there isn’t a fast or easy fix, but there is a process. Begin by surrounding yourself with people whose behaviors and ideas you are okay with absorbing, because they will inevitably change you. Pick people who will help you become a better person, and lead by example when you want to see a change in others.
Teaching and modeling the behaviors you want to see in your team is one of the best ways to ensure the kind of culture you want. This is especially effective when a new team is forming since the original culture of the founding members will influence the organization’s future culture. This is often referred to as “imprinting.” Like animals evolving, teams develop characteristics that reflect their formative environment, and those characteristics stick around long after the ecosystem changes.
Intentional Culture
Instead of being passive about shaping (or completely changing) the culture of your team, you can accelerate the personal and professional growth of your team by hiring a coach who will be intentional about the ideas and behaviors they teach.
That depth of engagement with work culture isn’t something I experienced on Wall Street, or even when I started my own firm. At first, my company’s culture emerged as a consequence of what I did. As I’ve deepened my skills as a coach and consultant, working with clients across a range of industries, I’ve started to see cultures more clearly. As a result, I’m more intentional in how I work with my clients and about the culture I create within my own teams.
Examining work culture has helped me understand the importance of creating space for feelings, fresh insight, dissent, and teamwork. I want to create an environment where everyone can win together.
It’s also the approach I bring to my clients.
Are you struggling to see (let alone shift) your work culture? I coach leaders and teams to create meaningful change for their companies. If that might be helpful to you, click here to set up a call.
* * *
Want to get these articles in your inbox? Subscribe here to join the conversation and download a sample from Meltdown.