Does Your Company Culture Suck?

Tribal Leadership, by Dave Logan, John King, and Halee Fischer-Wright © 2012

What They Say: Organizations can be characterized by their cultural "tribe" level. There are five levels, beginning with Stage One, in which the employees are desparingly hostile and may stoop so low as to steal from the company and resort to violence (exemplified by the idea of "Going Postal.")

Tribes work up through the levels to the ultimate achievement of Stage Five, a utopian state in which all employees are symbiotically relating to each other, to customers, and shareholders in an incredibly beautiful way. Note that fewer than 2% of workplace tribal cultures attain this level.

In Other Words: Company cultures can be identified by how the members behave. Most tribes end up in the middle three stages. The most distinguishing feature of a higher-level culture is that each individual is working towards the greater good of the company vs. looking out for himself alone.

What This Means to Small Business Owners: Your company's culture determines your businesses productivity and ultimately its profitability. A more functional "tribe" will always outperform a dysfunctional one. Also, it sucks to work in a low-level culture.

How to Grow: First, identify at which level most of your member operate. The key is to look for whether they are looking out for themselves or the good of the company. Next, consider meaningful ways in which to foster a higher level of culture.

Virginia Ginsburg is founder and chief consultant at Swell Strategies. She is passionate about supporting small business owners and entrepreneurs in starting and running successful enterprises. An avid reader, in this blog she reviews books and articles and relates specific learning points back to entrepreneurial businesses.