Blueprint Action #3: Set Your Cultural Path

Choosing a path hero

When embarking on a culture renovation, a primary decision is the path to set for the company. In the spirit of renovation, the new direction should acknowledge and embrace past successes, but set up the organization to forge new ground into an unknown future.

Most organizations begin with a Purpose Statement, but crafting the right one can be tricky. If the purpose is hollow or purely marketing-driven, most will see through it.  If the purpose is boring and wordy, it can have the opposite effect; rather than inspiring current and future employees, it can contribute to apathy and sometimes even cynicism.

As outlined in the book, there are a few guidelines we recommend in creating a lasting and impactful purpose statement:

  • It should be relevant.  A purpose statement needs to speak to customers and employees. It should relate to the products and services provided by the company.
  • It should operate on many levels.  The purpose needs to work on a macro level for large initiatives, as well as micro level on everyday issues.
  • It should evoke emotion and differentiation.  A statement should not be so bland that it sounds like it applies to any company. Instead, it should be unique, pithy, and powerful.
  • It should be enduring.  A good purpose statement should be as relevant in the future as it is today.

The purpose statement establishes a north star which other elements of the company need to align with. Good friend Joan Amble, who is a board member at Zurich Insurance, Sirius XM Holdings, and Booz Allen Hamilton, reinforced this when she said, “A company can only achieve greatness if its purpose, culture, and brand are in sync.” This is a concept we explored in depth in a whitepaper titled The New Corporate Currency.

In fact, i4cp rolled out a new purpose statement to kick off 2021: To Discover and Advance Next Practices in Human Capital.  Why did we pick these words? As a company, we are all about discovery and, today and in the future, we do this via research we perform, interviews we conduct, case studies we explore, among various other methods. We do this to advance our discoveries via our published reports, various forums we run, peers we help connect, etc. That advancement is focused on the Next Practices in human capital we’ve uncovered, which are the people practices that are strongly correlated to better market performance but only utilized in a small percentage of organizations.

Purpose sets the tone for an organization’s culture and brand, and ultimately performance. This was summed up well by the CEO of one of the best performing organizations we work with–Satya Nadella.

“Being CEO has taught me this—that two things perhaps matter the most: having a very clear sense of purpose or mission that gives the organization real direction; and having a culture that allows you to go after that mission,” said Nadella. “One of the key things, I feel, is that just like individuals, companies have an identity. I talk about it even as a soul. It’s that collective purpose that a company represents. In Microsoft, we talk about our mission as being empowering every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. Every one of those words, for me, telegraphs that soul.”

This article was originally published on CultureRenovation.com. Visit the website for additional resources, solutions, and information about the bestselling book.

Kevin Oakes

Kevin is CEO and co-founder of the Institute for Corporate Productivity (i4cp), the world’s leading human capital research firm focusing on people practices that drive high performance. i4cp conducts more research in the field of HR than any other organization on the planet, highlighting next practices that organizations and HR executives should consider adopting.

Kevin is also the author of Culture Renovation®, an Amazon bestseller which debuted as the #1 new release in a dozen Amazon book categories. Drawing on data from one of the largest studies ever conducted on corporate culture, Culture Renovation™ details how high-performance organizations such as Microsoft, T-Mobile, 3M, AbbVie, Mastercard and many more have successfully changed organizational culture.

Kevin is currently on the board of Performitiv, and on the advisory boards of Guild Education and Sanctuary. Kevin was previously on the board of directors of KnowledgeAdvisors, a provider of human capital analytics software, which was purchased by Corporate Executive Board in March of 2014. Kevin was also the Chairman of Jambok, a social learning start-up company which was founded at Sun Microsystems and was purchased by SuccessFactors in March 2011. Additionally, Kevin served on the boards of Workforce Insight and Koru prior to their sales.

Kevin is on the board of Best Buddies Washington and helped establish the first office for Best Buddies in the state in 2019. Best Buddies is a nonprofit organization dedicated to establishing a global volunteer movement that creates opportunities for one-to-one friendships, integrated employment, leadership development, and inclusive living for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD).

Kevin was previously the Founder and the President of SumTotal Systems (NASDAQ: SUMT) which he helped create in 2003 by merging Click2learn (NASDAQ: CLKS) with Docent (NASDAQ: DCNT). The merger won Frost & Sullivan's Competitive Strategy Award in 2004.

Prior to the formation of SumTotal, Kevin was the Chairman & CEO of Click2learn, which was founded by Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft. Kevin helped take Click2learn public and engineered over a dozen acquisitions post-IPO. Prior to joining Click2learn, Kevin was president and founder of Oakes Interactive in Needham, MA. Oakes Interactive was purchased by Click2learn (then called Asymetrix) in 1997, prior to going public a year later.