The Culture Driven Organization: How to Create Your Desired Organizational Culture and Sustain It

By Eyad J. Mubaied

One of the greatest impacts on organizational results and success is a healthy and strong culture. The impact of your organization’s culture on your results is undeniable. However, despite over 90% of executives acknowledging its importance, only a third believe they have achieved their desired culture.

Culture Defined

I define culture as “the manifestation of the shared beliefs reflected in common behaviors.” According to a Gallup study conducted in 2020, disengaged employees have 37% higher absenteeism, 18% lower productivity, and 15% lower profitability. When that translates into dollars, it costs 34% of a disengaged employee’s annual salary or $3,400 for every $10,000 they make. The opposite is true for engaged employees. Per a Harvard Business Review survey, an organization with a strong culture of innovation is 3.5 times more likely to out-perform its peers in revenue growth. 

The level of employee engagement or disengagement is often the reflection of various culture traits within an organization. These in turn significantly influence the overall employee experience and commitment, which plays a pivotal role in shaping the broader stakeholder experience, including the customers, or served group. 

Culture can play a pivotal role in the success or downfall of an organization. Its intangible nature is comparable to the wind—unseen but profoundly felt, shaping the outcomes and experiences within. Yet far too many organizations often overlook the importance of their culture. 

Creating Culture

Creating your desired culture is simple. Choose a Philosophy (mindset or principles), integrate it into a Process (system, platform, or partnerships), and instill it in People (employees, members, or participants). When these three elements align, you have a path to creating the desired culture. 

Utilizing the Secret Recipe of Philosophy, Process, and People empowers you to create a permeating, consistent, and enduring desired culture. Your perspective will shift from a micro-level to a macro-level view of your organization. You’ll discern connections that were previously unseen, often highlighting the need for Philosophy changes as opposed to other elements. When this process is purposeful, it will ensure a more efficient and effective transformation. Philosophy is the soul of culture.

Once the Philosophies of an organization are defined, leaders must then embed them in Process. This becomes the path to instill these Philosophies in People, which then strategically results in the desired culture. 

After Philosophy is defined at an organization, putting it into a Process is no easy task. This is one aspect that differentiates exceptional leaders from average ones. 

To assess the achievement of any goals, they have to obviously be measurable. However, unlike quantifiable financial measures or non-financial measures, culture is a hard topic to quantify. After all, how do you measure respect? Teamwork? Thinking and acting at the highest ethical values? 

Measuring Success

If you want your organization and People to be driven by your desired culture, then you must elevate your goal setting process to also include goals that correlate with the culture you desire. These goals must also be pushed down to all People in the organization. 

Unless an organizational culture is so sufficiently strong, to the point that nothing will affect it (I don’t think that there is or will ever be such an organization), hiring and termination strategies, along with all the steps in between, must include an emphasis and prioritization of culture. After your desired Philosophy is strategically embedded into a Process that is then instilled in People, the three are strategically aligned, and you will have your desired culture! 

Now you have it, the Secret Recipe. You now know how to create and sustain a desired culture. What’s next? I suggest the following: think, collaborate, assess, plan, implement, and celebrate.