- Where do you think the direction of corporate culture development is heading today?

The corporate system is a system of formal and informal rules, customs, traditions, and styles of behavior. The bearers of corporate culture are company employees, and first of all, owners and managers.

Today, I think, all employers are most interested in ensuring that all elements of the corporate culture are aimed at increasing efficiency and increasing profits. For example, so that it is customary for the company to respond quickly and politely to the client and promptly resolve his questions; so that, given the complexity of bureaucratic systems, employees propose ideas to simplify processes. Just think about it: according to some Western studies, ordinary specialists spend an average of 67% (!) of their time on bureaucracy, managers - 15%, in Russia this percentage may be even higher...

- In Korea, rivers flow in factory workshops, parrots fly, flowers grow... How can all this affect personnel, motivation, and work results?

The Hawthorne experiment of the early 20th century is widely known, which showed that ABOUT The socio-psychological climate and attitude towards the employee have a greater influence on the productivity of employees than many technical aspects of the production process, such as, for example, room lighting.

Improving working conditions is perceived as increased attention and care for employees, and therefore has a positive effect on their motivation and work results. Let me give you an example. The ChTPZ group includes one of the most beautiful and at the same time highly productive workshops in the world - the workshop for the production of large-diameter pipes - “Vysota 239”. The workshop has been repeatedly recognized as a masterpiece in the field of industrial architecture. And we see that from the moment the workshop was launched, there is always a queue of people willing to fill each of its vacancies.

- What negative habits of our employees are most likely to interfere with the formation of a corporate culture? Previously there was drunkenness...

Nothing can interfere with the formation of a corporate culture. It cannot not exist; it, like air, is always there. Another question - which Is the corporate culture accepted? Does it help or hinder the company's goals? If a company is tolerant of drunkenness and absenteeism, this influences the behavior of employees. They may reason: “Okay, I’ll have one drink before my shift, maybe it’ll be okay!” The result is accidents, absenteeism, and lost working time. If the company takes a tough approach to this issue, then the employer’s formed attitude will influence the choice of behavior of the employee, who, in a moment of weakness, will think about the risk of losing his job and make a different decision. For example, in our company, with an uncompromising approach to this issue, the number of people detained while intoxicated decreased by 17 times over the year!

In my opinion, the most important thing today is the speed of reaction to changes: changes in the market, systems, processes, personnel management methods. And I can define today’s most negative habit as conservatism, closedness, unwillingness to change and admit that the world has changed, and we either change with it or slowly perish.

- If shareholders do not set a goal and do not allocate a budget for the development of corporate culture, then can the HR department independently master this process?

Even if shareholders allocate a huge budget for the development of corporate culture, and only the HR department is engaged in this, then the task cannot be completed. All costs will be far-fetched; Perhaps staff satisfaction will improve, that's all. There will be no real change in corporate culture.

Corporate culture is formed by company leaders and managers through their daily behavior. A simple example. The company wants to change its corporate culture, make it more innovative, is revising its market strategy, declaring to its staff that initiative and new ideas are welcomed and encouraged, and reflects this in its values. And, for example, a middle manager holds a meeting of his team, at which a new employee stands up and proposes to change some process towards improvement, proposes a new idea. To which he receives the boss’s answer: “Mind your own business,” or “This is how it happened historically,” or “Many people tried before you - nothing worked!” etc. How will the employee change his behavior? Most likely, he will never offer anything again, at least to this boss. What conclusions will the employee draw? “The company has double standards,” he will think, “you shouldn’t believe everything they declare!” As Peter Drucker said, “culture eats strategy for breakfast,” and this is a real-life example of that exact statement.

- Let’s take a “neglected” version of corporate culture (the takeover of a plant), when a corporate culture spontaneously developed that does not allow for effective work. Is it possible and how can I put it in order?

First of all, 80% of managers need to be replaced. It is absolutely useless to try to instill new rules and systems with the same management. Corporate culture is in people's heads, and if ineffective work is in their heads, then it is easier to change a person than to try to change his ideas and behavior. You need to retain loyal professionals who are ready to change.

Next, it is important to clearly establish new rules and be consistent in their implementation: reward (in various public ways of non-material motivation) employees whose behavior corresponds to the new vision, and reprimand those who continue to act in previous traditions.

Of course, everything depends on the leader and the team that he manages to form. Today, the problem of leadership is number one; it occupies the minds of all businessmen in the world. A company's weak leadership potential is a serious obstacle to changing corporate culture and improving company performance. And I think this is a serious task for Russian companies - developing leadership potential at all levels of business management.

- How might the behavior of managers differ from that of subordinates? (A king should not carry out laws made for his subordinates?)

This approach is a recipe for failure. If a manager demands that his subordinates not be late for meetings, but he himself is constantly late, he is showing them extreme disrespect, which negatively affects employee engagement. What kind of inspiring leadership is there with such a leader? And today it’s no secret how engagement affects a company’s performance and profitability, as well as the fact that engaged employees are 43% more productive than their unengaged colleagues and even 86% more creative (according to statistics from the University of California, Berkeley).

A leader is a role model of behavior. His subordinates will behave in the same way with their subordinates. After all, employees - they are like children - do not listen to what they are told, but watch and repeat. Accordingly, we need to answer the questions: what do we want to cascade? What behavior model do we consider effective?

- Expats in Russia in PrK - previously they were in shock. Today?

In the companies I know, the number of expats has decreased. It is very difficult to apply your knowledge in another culture, and often in an aggressive environment, because in Russia we very often believe that we ourselves know everything and there is no need to teach us. We do not want to pay attention to the difference in efficiency and productivity, attributing the success of foreign companies to outsourcing and expensive equipment.

If we talk about expats not from the point of view of their shock, but from the point of view of benefits for Russian business, then I believe that they are capable of bringing benefits, but only in conditions very similar to their previous places of work: where a strategy has been adopted and clear smart goals have been established , evaluation criteria, feedback is provided regularly.

- The magazine "Personnel Management" talked with the leaders of a number of super-successful companies (1-2 thousand employees), where the goal was realized - a minimum of communications (only scripts) - precisely for the sake of preventing rumors and opposition. Is this an exception to the rule or a trend?

The human need to connect is almost as important as our need to drink, eat or breathe. No scripts will make people stop communicating and discussing news, much less replace live communication.

In the ChelPipe Group we often hold meetings with staff, and we have a well-organized system of communications and cascading information about the company’s development, plans, achievements and market challenges. According to the results of the engagement survey, satisfaction with the “Senior Management” factor increased by 10 points over the year - partly due to the presence of these very communications.

- What mistakes do companies still make in the area of ​​corporate culture?

The biggest mistake is double standards. There is no need to declare something that you are not ready to support. For example, today we can tell the staff that we are open and our appointments are transparent, and tomorrow we can appoint a relative who does not meet the professional and personal competencies to the position. The opacity of payment systems, amounts of bonuses, dismissals, appointments and privileges, the system for selecting participants in a corporate holiday, the size and equipment of offices, the behavior of the manager - all this affects the conclusions of employees about the real values ​​of the company and its priorities.

- What event related to the development of corporate culture do you remember from personal experience, why and why?

When we in the ChTPZ group first conducted an engagement survey, some managers told us: “Why do we need this? We make the pipes, and you manage the staff!”

A year later, the same managers in different situations told us: “No, we won’t do this, it will affect the engagement of our staff!” We will have to communicate and explain a lot with them.” Or yes! We are ready to make these changes; they will help us increase staff engagement.” The very awareness of responsibility for the attitude of our employees has changed, the understanding of the importance of human resources in achieving the company’s goals, and this, in my opinion, is the most important change reflecting our development of corporate culture.

Svetlana Kuzminykh, HR Director of the Pipe Division of the ChelPipe Group

Interviewed by Alena Yurova

What is the difference between companies that use the same technologies, create similar products and employ similar specialists? The interiors of the offices, the breadth or, conversely, the compactness of the proposed social package? In fact, as a rule, the main difference lies in the corporate culture.

Imagine: the head of a department, returning from a planning meeting, emotionally cursed in the presence of employees. The team leader, in the presence of a newbie, puts a carton of milk from the refrigerator into a bag - the company won’t even notice this, but they won’t have to go into the store. The CEO approved bonuses for the company's decade of operation: both the janitor and the chief accountant received the same amount as the first hired employees. These examples perfectly demonstrate how different companies treat employees, what company property is, and what a manager values—loyalty or performance.

Corporate culture is the norms and patterns of behavior that determine the activities of all company employees and the relationships between them. More briefly, this set of unspoken rules can be described with the phrase: “It’s customary for them.”

Often these rules are not spelled out in corporate documents, but after just a month of work, a new employee somehow “reads” the unspoken norms and begins to act using them. What else are the features of culture?

Corporate culture eats strategy for breakfast

No matter what ambitious plans a company sets for itself, no matter how global its goals, all projects will remain just beautiful presentations if they do not take into account the peculiarities of corporate culture. Hence the famous expression “Corporate culture eats strategy for breakfast,” which is attributed to the famous management theorist Peter Drucker: if the strategy contradicts the established traditions of the company, corporate culture will defeat it.

The leader and his immediate circle participate in the formation of culture and its transmission.

And the frequent request to the HR director: “Create the right corporate culture for us,” is absolutely wrong in its formulation. A simple example: if the general director arrives at the office at 11–12 o’clock, then no orders or explanations will force the team to be in the office at 9:00.

Changing culture starts with actions, not slogans

Moreover, simply “policies”, “regulations” and adaptation materials are perceived negatively if there is a difference between what is written and what happens in reality. You can, of course, write the company’s values ​​on the walls, make newsletters and letters about encouraged behavior, but this will only work in one case - when the top officials live and work as they declare. Says Irina, head of corporate sales at a telecommunications company: “When our director walked around the office, he could easily pick up a dropped sticker or straighten a baseboard. And the idea that the office is our home somehow penetrated the minds of our colleagues.”

Parties and corporate events are not culture

Former Netflix HR director Patty McCord once said that you can endlessly throw parties and give employees T-shirts, but if the company isn't doing well, people will quietly complain at the parties and use the T-shirts to wash their cars.

The language of values ​​is universal

Find people with a similar cultural code, instead of retraining and re-educating. Employees with a request for a “vertical of power” will not be able to work in cross-functional teams where they need to take responsibility, negotiate and make decisions together. And candidates with a request for development and independence will simply “suffocate” in companies with a narrow area of ​​responsibility and management’s unpreparedness for initiatives from below.

Culture should evolve along with business. Otherwise, it will become a bottleneck for growth. The main sign of an effective corporate culture is the achievement of company goals, fast communication within and controlled employee turnover.

If you want to dive a little deeper into this topic, we recommend starting with these books:

1. "The Leader and the Tribe" by Dave Logan, Haley Fisher-Wright and John King.
2. Delivering Happiness by Tony Hsieh.
3. “Corporate Culture and Values,” McKinsey Writing Team.
4. “Corporate Life Cycle Management”, Itzhak Kalderon Adizes.
5. "Unlocking the Organizations of the Future" by Frédéric Laloux.

An article by Deloitte's transition laboratory is devoted to the mechanism of change in organizational culture. The article, in detail, step by step, proposes a sequence of specific actions to implement changes and especially emphasizes the place and role of the general director, owner and/or shareholders in this difficult process.

Culture is like an iceberg. Much of this, the undercurrent, involves shared beliefs and assumptions that often develop over generations, and can sometimes blow a hole in the Titanic of corporate initiatives.

That is why changing organizational culture may be one of the priority challenges.

I often ask executives who visit transition labs about the constraint that is dominant to the company's growth. Surprisingly, this constraint is usually not something external to the company; Indeed, executives often point to company culture as a dominant constraint. To be successful, newly appointed leaders must quickly diagnose and either work with what they have or initiate cultural change if they want to improve organizational performance. However, I believe that many senior leaders are ill-equipped to systematically diagnose, articulate, and catalyze cultural change to improve performance.

In this essay, I will describe ways in which leaders can diagnose the prevailing culture and, if necessary, ways in which they can work through leaders to implement cultural change.

While the cover of the April issue of Harvard Business Review says, “You can't fix your culture. Just focus on your business and the rest will follow”, I disagree with this. Lack of a systematic understanding of culture and the direction of change can undermine successful leadership and corporate performance.

Dismantling Culture: Beliefs, Behaviors, and Results

Many executives find it difficult to accurately articulate and deal with culture. In fact, Deloitte's 2016 Global HR Trends report, based on a survey of more than 7,000 organizations and HR leaders, found that 82% of respondentsview culture as a “potential competitive advantage,” while only 28% believe they have a “good understanding of their culture” and 19% believe their organization has the “right” culture. No wonder. Culture can be compared to an iceberg or a reef, most of which is underwater and can blow a hole in the Titanic of corporate initiatives. Part of the culture that can be seen above water are the singular behaviors and results that can sometimes surprise and sometimes frustrate newly appointed leaders.

The submerged and silent part of the iceberg in culture is the “shared beliefs and assumptions in the organization,” which are formed over many generations and are, in fact, the real drivers of behavior. In short, what we often see and perceive as challenges are the artifacts and consequences of culture rather than the values, beliefs, and assumptions that define it and drive the behaviors and outcomes we observe.

Changing culture thus requires change at the belief level, and this is often much more difficult than changing business processes or information systems. What also complicates matters is that there is often a common company culture and subcultures in different groups. Sometimes they can contradict each other.

While executives can drive cultural change throughout the company, CEOs typically can only provide support for culture change efforts to the CEO or are limited to only driving belief change within their specific subcultures.

Thus, most top executives have limited authority to make changes outside their functional area. However, every senior leader must be able to identify dysfunctional cultural traits and develop beliefs that will help leaders at all levels drive cultural change.

The classic model of culture change is based on three stages: “unfreezing” beliefs in the organization through critical events; “Change” through role modeling and establishing new behaviors and beliefs; and “Freezing” the organization to lock in the new culture (see Lewin-Schein Models). Based on our hands-on lab experiences, I've adapted these steps into a series of practical steps that most managers can use:

• Diagnose, name and validate the culture of the organization;
• Reframe the cultural narrative;
• Role modeling and communication regarding cultural change;
• Strengthen the new belief system;

Each of these four steps is discussed below:

1.Diagnose, name and validate culture.

The first step is to diagnose and identify the beliefs that define the existing culture. To do this, it is useful to ask company leaders to think through and define the organizational outcomes they have observed and what they like and dislike about it. They must then hypothesize what beliefs they think led to those results, and then the beliefs that drive the behavior that led to those results. Consider two clear examples of the outcome of unwanted behavior in the table below. By looking more deeply at undesirable outcomes and hypotheses about the behavior that promotes such outcomes, it is possible to obtain predictions about the beliefs that likely underlie them.

Once hypotheses about the beliefs that shape culture are formulated, they need to be tested. This begins with recognizing that existing beliefs do not arise in a vacuum, and they have often served good purposes even if they are not useful now. In the example above, autonomy was highly valued because the company's market success was based on breakthrough products created by engineers and designers who broke existing conceptual frameworks and created a new thing. On the other hand, the autonomy of financial systems in different business units does not serve the purpose of autonomy that was important in the development of innovative products. When you hypothesize beliefs that are no longer useful for your company, try to test them as mainstream beliefs through discussion with your colleagues and try to understand the origins and primary purposes they served.

Cultures can be preserved for a long time. The origins of beliefs can be passed on by different generations of leaders. For example, in a recent culture change lab discussion, I was struck by the CEO's story of how, over the past decade, he has strived for cooperation and cooperation, while the dominant company culture is characterized by a lack of information sharing, maximum delegation to the top, and ownership of decision making. key leaders. When we dug this out, it turned out that the previous CEO, ten years ago, was very directive, scolded and could publicly humiliate managers. Thus, many executives did not feel safe to fully share opinions and delegated critical choices upward to minimize personal risk. Despite the change of CEO to a more benevolent one, the culture created by the previous CEO held sway for over 10 years. This persistence of a culture and belief system over time sometimes makes it difficult to diagnose, name, and change.

2. Reframing existing narratives.

The second step to changing culture is to reframe the narratives that will be used to change beliefs. To begin reframing existing beliefs, it is important to create a narrative that shows the meaning of a widely held belief, as well as the pitfalls and inconsistencies of such a belief in various other contexts. In the example of a high-tech company going through these changes, it was important for the CEO and CFO to partner and create a new, agreed-upon narrative in which they both recognized the power of autonomy and “being special and different” in creating products, and also told about the limitations of this belief in other areas of business and the costs it imposes on business as a whole if we do not have standardized financial and other systems.

Sometimes I find it useful to collect beliefs, behaviors, and outcomes that are desirable, such as in the second example. The priority results are summarized in the table below.

Narratives must be processed carefully enough (and voiced) to not only confirm the new meaning, but also cancel the old one, which did not lead to the desired goals.

3. Role model and the relationship of cultural change.

Although specific narratives can override existing beliefs, replacing them with targeted ones that produce desired results, it is necessary to formulate and demonstrate behaviors that support such new beliefs.

Implementing new beliefs requires modeling new roles - showing how to do things using the new beliefs and rewarding those who behave in ways that support those new beliefs and produce targeted results. The first step is to communicate what is valued not only at the performance level, but also at the belief level. This will likely entail creating and executing a communications strategy around the organizational culture change you want to implement. Next, as a leader, you must behave and act in accordance with the culture you want to achieve. Your employees look to your behavior as a key signal of the values ​​and beliefs that will lead the organization forward. So you can't, for example, encourage excellence and innovation and appoint mediocre people to leadership positions with no previous track record.

Because cultures can persist for very long periods of time, creating narratives and modeling new roles may not produce the desired results at the tipping point when general acceptance of the new culture is required. Instead, you may need to hire new leaders and employees who share the new values ​​and understand what you want to help you accelerate culture change in the organization.

4. Reinforce and articulate desired beliefs, behaviors, and outcomes.

To create a new set of behaviors and beliefs on a sustainable basis, it is important to reconsider performance management incentives and policies and align them with the culture you want to create. For example, if you want to target individual business units to cross-sell, collaborate, and collaborate, but reward leaders solely for the performance of those specific business units, you are unlikely to encourage collaboration and cross-selling. Since employees tend to focus on the metrics that drive their compensation, it's critical to align compensation and performance metrics with the culture you're fostering.

At every stage of culture change and strengthening, it is important to communicate about beliefs and expected behavior. And it’s okay to explicitly formulate and reinforce your desired beliefs. Some companies create a cultural manifesto. One of my favorite examples of clearly articulating aspirational beliefs is Steve Jobs in his “Think Different” company opening speech to employees. The new advertising campaign served not only an external purpose, but also an internal one, reinforcing Apple's core values ​​and beliefs at a critical time in the company's history. Today, the use of electronic and video media can also further enhance and expand the reach of key audiences for critical communications and narratives.

Catalyzing Cultural Change: CEO and Senior Executives (Owner and Shareholders)

The chief executive officer (CEO) and the rest of the C-suite have fundamentally different roles in catalyzing culture change. CEOs must own the narrative and be champions and champions of organizational culture change throughout the company. At the same time, the limited nature of the actions of the rest of the managers comes down to making changes in their areas of responsibility and supporting the CEO in implementing the changes. In our transition labs, I am often struck by how culture is often defined as a vexing problem affecting corporate performance and yet there is a lack of both a definition of culture and the desired meanings of that culture, as well as systematic approaches to change. Often there is not even a systematic discussion among the team leadership. Analyzing performance, behavior, and beliefs can be one way to generate hypotheses about key elements of culture. Today, companies can move beyond analytics to use multiple approaches to employee research, language in customer reviews, and other online data sources to accurately test and validate hypotheses about corporate culture from the perspective of key stakeholders. .

While the CEO should have the primary leadership role in culture change efforts, I believe that all other senior executives should and can play an important role in the change steps described in this article. They can work together to articulate and dismantle beliefs that no longer serve the company. They can work together to create reliable narratives that, by changing the framework of existing beliefs, will lead to higher performance outcomes. They can work to create new role models and communicate new beliefs and patterns of behavior and communication, and again reinforce these changes in behavior and communication in the workplace.

This article focuses on cultural change, but not all cultural attributes are bad. Indeed, many beliefs, such as the belief “we are special” from the example in the table, in the context of research and development (R&D)- Research & Development) and product development have been vital to creating innovative and differentiated products that make this culture a source of competitive advantage. Thus, it is important to have a clear understanding of how to work with the existing culture to make it a source of competitive advantage before looking for something that will transform it. This is why it is important for you as leaders to diagnose the prevailing culture. Your transition priorities must either systematically fit into your existing culture and leverage it to create a competitive advantage, or you will have to develop change strategies to effectively execute your priorities. In the latter case, you must decide whether the costs and time frame exceed the benefits you plan to get from the new crop.

Dry residue

Transition periods are times when leaders must effectively diagnose the prevailing culture and then decide to create strategies or initiatives that will curb the existing culture or create a new one to support the strategies. Defining and changing culture is a difficult thing - after all, cultures develop and exist over years. By working backwards - observing results and beliefs, you can speculate and begin to test key cultural attributes and understand from meaning and origin. Strategies for changing cultural narratives, reframing beliefs through changing role models and selective recruiting, and strengthening culture through measurement and promotion of change and targeted communications can be implemented to change culture. The lack of understanding and lack of engagement with culture change during transition can be perfectly illustrated by the phrase attributed to Peter Drucker: “Culture eats strategy for breakfast!”

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As Charles Handy famously defines company culture, "it's the way we do business around here." Edgar Schein claimed that The company's culture is established by the founders, and the business, even when filled with thousands of employees, remains an extension of the personalities of its founders. Kathleen Eisenhardt attributed the stubborn repetition of the typical growth strategy by different generations of managers to “path dependence.” In the management community (environment), this phenomenon is called organizational inertia and resistance to change is associated with it. “Culture eats strategy for breakfast,” as the great Peter Drucker is said to have once said. These words mean that companies are able to successfully implement only those long-term plans that are aligned with their organizational culture. Anything that contradicts it will not work... The gurus spoke very clearly, and it would seem there is nothing to add: culture deprives a business of the opportunity to implement optimal (from the point of view of prevailing external conditions) strategies. And that's bad.

But, just for fun, you can argue with this. Stanislaw Lem, in the annotation to Wilhelm Klopper’s treatise “Culture as an Error” (both Klopper and the treatise are Lem’s fiction) writes: “Culture is an instrument of adaptation of a new type, for it ... serves to ensure that everything that is accidental in our conditions, shone in an aura of supreme and complete necessity. And this means that culture - through the religions, laws, covenants and prohibitions it created - acts in such a way as to turn dissatisfaction into an ideal, disadvantages into advantages, disadvantages into advantages, wretchedness into perfection.” That is, translating Klopper-Lem's thought into a management context, culture for a company is an immune system that ensures survival in a hostile environment. Culture, destroying harmful plans, destroying poisonous ideas of change, does not allow business to embark on suicidal “optimal for the prevailing external conditions” adventures... In other words, it is very good that corporate culture eats strategies for breakfast.

Eternal questions that managers and business owners ask: how to achieve more at lower costs; how to make people produce better results; how to involve and motivate them; how to improve company performance. The standard method that everyone resorts to to increase profits is to reduce costs.

However, there is an alternative and unexpected option. This is to develop a corporate culture. Every company has it, but it is not always given due attention. But in vain! By improving your corporate culture, you can improve the results of the company as a whole!

South African sage

Steph du Plessis is a South African-based international expert on creating effective company culture and employee engagement. He helps companies improve their bottom line. Steph is one of 31 speakers in the world who have received Certified Speaking Professional Global accreditation from the Global Speakers Federation. Author of a methodology for improving company results using the Unwritten Ground Rules tool.

Linking culture and performance

I have been working with companies around the world for 20 years, improving their corporate culture, thereby increasing productivity. My team surveyed employees at different levels and across different companies about how they thought improving corporate culture impacted company performance. The results were pleasantly surprising:

• 91% of senior managers think company productivity will increase by 20% if culture is improved as much as possible;
• 58% of middle managers believe that company productivity will increase by 50% or more if the culture is improved as much as possible;
• 25% of average employees say results will improve by 80% if company culture is improved.

Survey results demonstrate a strong connection between corporate culture and company performance. How then can this very culture be improved?

What is more important: the company’s values ​​or the personal values ​​of the employees?

In the understanding of most managers, the essence of corporate culture is expressed in the company’s values. But often the values ​​are known only to those who came up with them, plus a couple of top managers - patriots of the company.

I recently asked one of the top executives to list the values ​​of his company. In response, he picked up his phone and entered the company's website into his browser's search bar to see what their stated values ​​were. But, logically, the daily work of the company should be based on these values.

In most cases, the values ​​are simply written on posters, brochures and on the website - but no one remembers them. And if employees are aware of the values ​​that exist in their company, they smile and lower their eyes when it comes to them. And the reason is simple: they are far from the personal interests of your employees. Bridge over the river Employee interests – There are no company values, but at the same time you call your colleagues to action and motivate them precisely with the company’s values ​​– the result is dissonance.

Official rules VS unwritten rules

There are two types of rules in the company. The first is the procedures, principles and policies that are written down in the official documents of the company, i.e. these are rules on paper. And there is a second type of rules: unwritten rules - people’s perception of how “here” everything is done. These are some tips for beginners on how to behave in a company. Let's try to figure out what rules really affect the performance of your people.

When a new employee comes to the company, he draws attention to the following situation: “It’s normal for us to be late for meetings here.” Why? Because this newcomer comes to the first meeting, and it starts later than scheduled. And after that, the person understands that there is no need to rush to the next meeting.

When a new employee comes to the workplace, he is interested in several questions. For example, did he get a corporate email? This way he can conclude how well the IT department works in the company. Next, does the team know about the arrival of a new employee? And it immediately becomes clear how efficiently the HR department works. And also, what is said in the presence of the boss, and what in his absence? All these things teach the new employee how to behave in the company.

This new employee will also undergo formal training where he will be taught the company's policies and procedures. In other words, he will be taught how the company would like him to behave, while the unwritten rules will show him how to behave in order to “fit in” with the team.

It is the unwritten rules that influence the culture in the company, but for some reason they are kept silent about them.

5-Step Model for Implementing Unwritten Rules

If you want to improve a company's results, you need to change the culture in the company, and this can be done by changing the unwritten rules. To do this you need to take five steps.

Step 1: Visualize Values

Clarify to employees the key cultural attributes needed for the company's future success (or reaffirm the company's values). For example, if one of your company's values ​​is transparency, then clarify what key cultural attributes are implied by this. For example, transparency in a company means:

“They share information here.”

“We are telling the truth here.”

“Here we are not afraid to ask a question if something is not clear.”

Step 2. Inventory the state of the culture

Assess the current state of the culture by identifying unwritten rules in relation to existing company values, and implement improvements based on this assessment. Conduct the so-called “Inventory of Unwritten Rules.” To do this, ask employees to continue the suggestions:

“Here, when someone says that he will do something...”

“Here, when someone needs help...”

“Here, when something goes wrong...”

“Here, when there’s tension...”

“Here, when a client complains...”

Step 3: Train your staff

Educate as many people as possible, especially managers, about the concept of unwritten rules, as people may be unknowingly influenced by negative unwritten rules. Teaching people this concept will enable them to make informed choices about appropriate behavior.

Step 4: Start the process

Encourage people to create and prioritize inspiring, positive unwritten rules that relate to the company's values ​​and by which they characterize the company of the future.

To create positive unwritten rules, you need to:

• ensure the company's long-term success in the future;
• making the company a great place to work.

When creating positive unwritten rules, think about your current culture: what you don't like about it, and do the opposite.

The rules must be drawn up so that all employees without exception understand them. They should not sound like the official company values, which look nice, but are not clear to everyone.

Step 5: Implement your rules

Identify unwritten rules and implement a strategy to reinforce inspiring, positive unwritten rules.

The concept of unwritten rules trains employees to follow them unknowingly. Over time, this helps each employee become more responsible for the company's culture.

The material was prepared by Marina Kulenko, Marketing and Business Development Manager at KA Group, based on the results of Steph du Plessis’ speech