Ask the EXpert: Can Culture be designed?
Dear EXperts,
Can culture be designed? A significant part of my work is helping to create high performing teams. I know from experience that culture is a key component both for performance and a workplace fit for people. My own current view is that it's the systems and relationships that can be designed. The culture emerges in response to that. Am I missing something?
– Leader within a global design agency
Our EXpert advice
Thanks to one of our LinkedIn followers for such a brilliant question. First of all, we don't think you're missing anything at all. In fact, we agree with you - culture is the outcome of how we define what we stand for and the internal people experience we design within our teams.
Here’s how we approach creating great cultures:
We start by defining the purpose, vision and values which creates a foundation and anchor for the culture. But, while these are crucial for aligning everyone around a shared goal, these alone are not enough.
We also need to be specific about how our values show up in our everyday interactions, and we can do this by turning our values, which are informed by our purpose and vision, into measurable, observable behaviours. It’s also important to consider what behaviours actively undermine your values so that you can be clear about what you don’t tolerate within your culture.
Finally, we need to reinforce our values through carefully designed rituals, systems, processes and practices - or in other words, through a well-designed people experience that also upholds the crucial pillars of great cultures, such as inclusion, wellbeing, psychological safety and a growth mindset.
The combination of a well-defined purpose, vision and values, with a well-designed and maintained people experience, is what causes a good culture to emerge. We often describe culture as the outcome or result of the internal experience we design (or fail to design).
You might be thinking, “Hold on a second, don’t you two talk about culture design all the time, though?” We do indeed, and that’s also intentional. We use the term "culture design" as an umbrella term for the work that we do as it helps people to identify the space that we’re in. If we were being pedantic, we’d probably say that culture design is actually the opposite - it’s design that creates culture. But hey ho!
