In my observations, many Boards don’t think and act strategically enough in relation to the culture they want to see flourishing within their organisations.
Instead, they either don’t consider culture-shaping as their remit, or they expect management to take care of it all. Or they behave poorly themselves and wonder why the rest of the organisation ends up copying their lead.
In my observations, many Boards don’t think and act strategically enough in relation to the culture they want to see flourishing within their organisations.
Instead they either don’t consider culture-shaping as their remit and they expect management to take care of it all. Or they behave poorly themselves and wonder why the rest of the organisation ends up copying their lead.
All too often, in the absence of any active work to create a desirable culture, organisational cultures just bubble along (or ‘fester away’ as the case may be) – eventually sinking to the level of the lowest standard accepted.
I’m sure you’ve probably seen this – I know I certainly have.
To me it feels like a rudderless ship caught up in a leadership vacuum, being thrown about by the chaotic whims of a tumultuous ocean.
Equally I’ve seen dysfunctional Boards unintentionally feeding into an awful organisational culture, where the cultural state of the organisation reflects the lack of trust, the poor leadership, and the sometimes unacceptable behaviour occurring in the Board room.
I think the best way to prevent your organisation falling into either of these undesirable situations is to ensure that Organisational Culture is a headline item in your organisation’s strategic planning.
It’s a case in point of ‘what gets measured gets managed’ and keeping it on the agenda makes sure it is going to be monitored and reported against.
When you are refreshing or renewing your Strategic Plan, make sure ‘What is the organisational culture we want to see?’ is one of the key questions you discuss.
Thrash this out. Define it. And make sure the answers you come up with are reflected through your Values, Vision and Mission.
Then communicate it – regularly and ongoing. To your senior leaders, to your staff body, to your volunteers (if you have them), and, especially, to your end users. Because the people you serve are the ones who are going to benefit most from an organisation with a positive, supportive and caring culture within the organisation they come to for assistance – whatever that may be.
If your Board needs some help to think about the culture it wants to lead, do get in touch.
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