The Conscious Culture

Organizations are made up of both conscious and accidental cultures and turbulent times truly magnify both.  The conscious culture comes from what’s written and documented.  Its accidental culture comes about from those accepting and performing around unwritten or unspoken behaviors and norms passed from one employee to the next, and even one generation to the next.  Most likely an employee “knows” that it is part of the culture, yet it has never been documented. Accidental cultures can create both positive and negative outcomes.  Here are examples of how the accidental culture emerges:  At one business, a team has an impromptu happy hour every Friday where they celebrate all their accomplishments, welcome new members and say goodbye to those leaving. 
 
Another business tolerates leaders and managers that chastise employees in front of others.  Yes, we’ve all seen this at some point in our careers and maybe you are currently experiencing this kind of culture in your organization.  Obviously you would not see anything written that encourages this behavior which is why this is a good example of how accidental culture emerges.  And in fact over time, it may become so acceptable that it is actually not considered a violation of core values when it happens.
 
Sometimes process leads to accidental culture.  Many organizations require their people to complete times sheets (beyond the hourly workers).  This is quite common in service organizations where time is billed to the customers.  Logging hours spent on each project is a mandatory part of the job and yet while necessary, it can accidentally create a “watch the clock” type of culture.
 
As stated earlier, a conscious culture evolves from written and spoken goals, values and behaviors, and practices that are taught, measured and reinforced in the organization.  There are distinct benefits to a conscious culture:
 
·       Leaders more rapidly assimilating to the culture
·       Employees more quickly understanding the range of acceptable behaviors
·       Recruitment is easier
·       It is easier to identify and take action when there is a lack of fit.
·       There is a likelihood of successful integration in the case of a merger or acquisition
·       Systemic change is easier because there is no battle between the conscious and accidental cultures