Are you doing it in principle or out of principle?

In conversations with managers of technology companies, I sometimes hear the desire to do “something” with the corporate culture. For example, to work on a more proactive or a more customer-oriented culture. Culture sounds like something intangible. It is about the common values and norms of an organization and the resulting behavior. How can you manage this effectively? How can you get a grip on the culture of your organization?

Eelco Themans ISA Training & Coaching

One of the pillars of corporate culture is the set of behaviors of the organization's employees. You can get a grip on this by working with a set of core values and principles derived from them. This last step in particular is often not taken. Core values can usually still be found in an organization. These sometimes hang on the wall somewhere or are included in a mission statement. Principles, on the other hand, I come across less often. As far as I'm concerned, that's where the opportunities lie. I define a principle as a guideline for desired behavior. By providing core values with one or two principles, a set of guidelines or rules of thumb are created that help people in an organization behave in accordance with the core values.

Customer oriented

For example, you can provide the core value “Customer-oriented” with principles such as “I am consciously concerned with the effect of my behavior and image on the customer” or “I only make agreements with the customer that I can keep and I always deliver on what I have agreed to meet". Working with these types of principles makes it easier to compliment or confront employees based on the shared principles instead of a personal view or opinion.

'I only make agreements with the customer that I can keep.'

So work on creating a set of values and principles with which managers and employees, in collaboration with each other, define the desired culture and also feel and take responsibility for maintaining it. The important question is: “Are we doing it in principle or out of principle?” By clarifying what behavior you want to show on principle, you will gain control over your culture step by step.