Where there is a group of people, or at least a group united by a common goal of one sort or another, a culture emerges. Each culture has countless remarkable nuances and eccentricities, and a wide range of scholars - from anthropologists to sociologists to corporate financiers - have devoted volumes and volumes to cataloging these eccentricities and developing complicated theories as to how they originated and why they persist.
While such studies are interesting, we agree with renowned culture scholar Edgar Schein that culture is really only relevant in so far as it impacts the common goal that unites the group, that makes it a community. In the world of organizations, we know this common goal as the mission.
Every organization has a mission and demands that are placed on its members to advance that mission, Those demands influence personal and professional development. Most do not think about - at least consciously - the demands and the influence of the company's culture. To keep things simple, we define culture as the way the people of a community, think about and act in relation to their shared goal(s). True it's incredibly broad, but this definition at least provides a starting point for processing the hundreds of thousands of pieces that go to make up our daily life at work.
In both overt and covert ways, it will affect how you behave. Every time you question an assumption or just go with the flow; every time you streamline an inefficiency or resign yourself to waste; and every time you right a wrong or turn a blind eye - no matter how seemingly insignificant the action, everything you do will be influenced by the culture. As leaders develop, there is a responsibility (1) to understand this influence, (2) to develop a framework for evaluating how the influence impacts the well-being of your team and your organization, and (3) to act courageously to change those elements of the culture you deem to be harmful.
One should develop their skills as a culture observer, and build out their framework for understanding and evaluating cultural elements. What are the important elements of culture? Why are they important? How do we measure them? How do we determine if they’re good or bad? How do we change them?
Culture matters, and has a powerful impact on organizational members.