What Good “Culture” Actually Means for the IT Organization
Think about a company with “good” corporate culture.
Google likely comes to mind. They offer a gourmet cafeteria, on-site massages, and free fitness classes.
Sounds like a great place to model your IT organization’s culture after, right?
Maybe not.
- First: it just ain’t gonna happen.
As Anthony Tjan explains in his HBR article Cult Culture as Competitive Advantage— it’s nearly impossible to create this sort of relaxed culture in most mature organizations due to “over-processing, [and] over-codifying”. - Second: perks don’t address the foundations of effective organizational culture.
Yes, you want a ping pong table in the break room. But there are more important, more foundational ways IT orgs need to think about their culture than serving beer on Friday afternoons…
First and foremost, IT orgs need to first make sure they create a culture that aligns with their larger company’s culture.
Which, of course, is easier said than done.
A company’s culture arises from a combination of so many soft qualities that it’s difficult to quantify or define it outright.
Yes, we can all see the differences between the staid corporate environment of a major bank versus the highly energetic and creative environment of a young, fast-growing Silicon Valley software company.
But this type of surface-level evaluation isn’t easy to turn into an actionable approach towards creating cultural alignment between IT and the business.
Instead of relying on cultural appearances and gut-feel evaluations, we suggest thinking about IT cultural alignment mapped against two major areas:
-
Does the IT organization approach technology and technology-related issues the same way the company approaches them?
-
Do the individual members of the IT organization “get along” with their business colleagues?
These two areas are much easier to evaluate—and create alignment within—than other, nebulous, approaches to defining “culture”.
Here’s how.
How to Align on Tech and Tech-Related Issues
Look at the business’ strategic objectives for the year, especially as they relate to technology.
Look at every technology-related memo the business circulates.
Make note of where you and the business butt heads over technology decisions—especially during planning and budgeting processes.
Ask yourself: “Where does the business want to spend money on technology? Where does the business want to reduce spending on technology?”
If this sounds a lot like strategic alignment, you are correct. Maintaining strategic alignment naturally produces that “feel” within the business that you are cut from the same clothe as them.
How to Get Along With Your Colleagues
There are two elements to consider here—Personality and Professional Development.
a. Personality
You want to be sensitive to what sort of people the rest of the company hires to make sure you bring on people who will get along with them on an interpersonal level. When you do, it’s just a matter of making sure your people have a chance to mix and mingle with their colleagues in non-work settings.Here’s an excellent case study on how to do so.
(Why does this matter? Aside from making work a more enjoyable place to be, this sort of interpersonal capital helps lubricate the most challenging professional battles.)
b. Professional Development You need to develop your team members to align with the core professional competencies your company values. Stay tuned for an upcoming article on how to identify and develop these competencies within your people.
Maintaining IT’s “IT-ness”
To clear up a common misunderstanding:
achieving cultural alignment with the business is not the same as compromising IT’s natural tendencies in a misguided attempt to get the business to “like” you.
As Chris Pinc (Senior Consultant at Towers Watson) explained in a roundtable titled Aligning Organizational Culture with Business Strategy, not every department within the company will—or should—behave in exactly the same way. As he notes: “Even a very innovative company doesn’t necessarily want its Finance department to take risk with new accounting procedures.”
Instead, what matters is a feeling within the business that each department is on the same team—that every department is made up of people who value the same things, who approach shared problems in a similar way, and who can move towards that larger objective without wringing each other’s necks.
