Create a growth culture, not a performance-obsessed one - Christopher O’Connor
I recently read the article ‘Create a Growth Culture, Not a Performance-Obsessed One’ by Tony Schwartz. With my background as a CEO of two companies, I found this article to be very interesting and decided to share my views on the topic.
- Christopher J. O’Connor
2021 was a test for most organizational cultures. Employees were ripped from the “nest” of their offices and both employers and employees went remote without the benefit of any planning. It became glaringly obvious which cultures could easily pivot and which did not have a growth culture with embedded support for colleagues and flexibility up and down the reporting structure. The truth is that most organizations never wanted remote staff because they didn’t trust that they would do the same level or amount of work without in-person supervision.
Performance-based cultures may have their place, but they are largely short-term solutions for immediate problems. However, a growth culture is both a longer-term strategy but also a much more effective way to achieve both financial and operational goals. The reality is that people eagerly buy into a growth culture while they begrudgingly participate in a performance-based culture. When everyone is steering toward the company’s “True North” all of the typical noise and internal competitiveness goes away.
From my experience, it takes real work and dedication to fix a broken culture and even harder work to integrate the cultures of merging companies. It requires purposeful actions, honestly, and a willingness to change. However, once you have done it as an organization, your employees will protect it at all costs and will be your guard rails to ensure that your growth culture doesn’t falter.
It will be interesting to see how cultures evolve in 2021 and we turn the corner on COVID-19 and employees are able to safely return to the office setting.
Read here the original article on Harvard Business Review:
