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Facts from paper are not the same as facts from people. The reliability of the people giving you the facts is as important as the facts themselves. ~Harold S. Geneen
Reliability is an important issue in our fast-paced, modern lifestyles. We rely on our smartphones and most of the time they work perfectly. Not quite the same level of reliability when it comes to our network provider service. Dead zones, dropped calls, texts and voice mail messages that arrive hours or days late. We require reliability to function and manage out day-to-day activities.
We rely on our banking and credit card services for accuracy and reliability to reduce the hassle of financial dealings, large and small. But the rise in alternative Financial-Technology players in the areas of payments (PayPal, Apple Pay), loans and even money transfer and forex services is the result of the traditional banks being more and more unreliable in terms of service and functionality.
Probably the major transformation over my lifetime in reliability is the automobile. WhenImage may be NSFW.
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I was in high school in the early 1960’s my car was constantly breaking down and in need of checking for oil leaks, radiator overheating, battery drains and a hundred other annoyances. I couldn’t reliably just get in and drive for days without some sort of problem. And a little later I bought myself a sports car, a Lotus Esprit (a short fling at pretending to Image may be NSFW.
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be James Bond I guess). Beautiful car. Fast and sexy. But totally unreliable. Several times it broke down on the Los Angeles Freeway, during rush hour. I spent a fortune just getting it to be reliable.
Today, even though automobiles are much more complex, with both mechanical and electronic components, most of us experience near perfect reliability. We don’t think twice about loading the kids and dogs in the car and heading to the beach or the mountains. We expect and get reliability. And life works when the things around us are reliable.
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And it’s not just machines or technology that can be reliable. A good example of organizational reliability is the Marine Corps. Think about the Marines: the few, the proud. They have a connected community that is second to none, and it comes from the early indoctrination of every member of the Corps and the clear communication of their purpose and value system. It is completely clear that they are privileged to be joining an elite community that is committed to improvising, adapting, and overcoming in the face of any adversity. The culture is so strong that it glues the community together and engenders a sense of pride that makes them unparalleled. The shared and strong culture is what each Marine relies on when lives are on the line.
And reliability brings peace of mind.
Can you rely on your corporate culture?
In a thousand ways, day after day, executives, managers and employees trust the corporate culture to support them as they work towards delivering products and services to customers and clients. We rely on the culture to be aligned with the strategy and organisation structure. We rely on the shared and habitual behaviours used by employees and our leadership to deliver the results and work environment required.
Corporate Culture is the company DNA. A unique combination of behaviours, beliefs, assumptions and business processes (formal and informal) that over time have become the “habitual” approach management and employees use in solving business problems and interacting with each other, customers, clients and suppliers.
But the sad fact is, most of us take the culture for granted and expect that it is reliable and aligned with our internal needs and the needs of customers. And, like my old car, unless alignment and reliability are built-in and maintained diligently, there are often too many breakdowns. Breakdowns in communications, breakdowns in trust, breakdowns in deadlines, breakdowns in quality, breakdowns in service. Most times the corporate culture is an unreliable asset, which quickly translates into a liability.
Do you know what your culture is? Do you know why your culture has certain strengths and weaknesses.
If you don’t understand your corporate culture, you don’t understand your business.
What will it take to make your corporate culture a reliable asset and not a liability?
Written and Posted by: John R. Childress
Senior Executive Advisor on Leadership, Culture and Strategy Execution Issues,
Business Author and Advisor to CEOs
Visiting Professor, IE Business School, Madrid
e: john@johnrchildress.com
Twitter @bizjrchildress
Read John’s blog, Business Books Website
On Amazon: LEVERAGE: The CEO’s Guide to Corporate Culture
Read The Economist review of LEVERAGE
Also on Amazon: FASTBREAK: The CEO’s Guide to Strategy Execution
John also writes thriller novels!
Filed under: corporate culture, Human Psychology, leadership, Organization Behavior, strategy execution Tagged: 56 Chevy, alignment, Banking, Corporate Culture, culture change, Culture DNA, Customer Service, financial services, Forex, leadership, Lotus Esprit, reliability, reliable, US Marines Image may be NSFW.
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