Team of five multi-ethnic employee having fun working together in an open plan office with big windows.
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I regularly hear senior leaders enthusiastically declare, “We just need to be like Google!†– or Netflix, or Amazon, or Apple.
It is a laudable ambition, but ultimately a fruitless endeavor. The “perfect” culture simply does not exist. You cannot take the cultural framework of an entirely different entity – with its own unique market, history, and business drivers – and overlay it onto your own organization. To put it bluntly: it will fit like a pair of trousers on a fish.
Rather than hunting for a carbon copy of perfection, smart leaders focus on the fundamental interplay that these successful organizations manage so well. They seek to create a High Performance Culture (HPC): a delicate balancing act that weights exceptional operational output against a positive, inclusive work environment.
Tip the scales too far either way, and unintended damage follows. It's been widely reported that WeWork, for example, fell into the trap of maxing out the cultural experience of the organization, but did so with far too little focus on commercial discipline and the need to deliver numbers.
Over the last 15 years of shaping successful global cultures, I have observed that achieving this balance all starts with three fundamental concepts. Together, they create a “fire triangle” – without one, the others simply cannot function.
1. Alignment: A culture only works when everyone understands the ambition of the organization. Alignment ensures that every individual knows exactly how the work will be delivered and understands their specific part in making it happen. People must be dialed into both the desired operational output and the shared culture required to get there.
2. Ownership: Alignment must be paired with empowerment. Ownership means people are stepping up to the challenge, taking full responsibility, and feeling empowered to act. Crucially, these actions must support the organization’s purpose while remaining in accordance with the cultural norms that everyone subscribes to.
3. Energy: Finally, an organization needs the right pace at volume. Energy is the positive restlessness that drives progress. It is the desire to do well, and the vital fuel that empowers people to speak up, challenge, and push back when actions run at odds with shared intents.
If you have aligned people who take ownership but lack energy, you merely have passive “fans” of the organization. Conversely, if you have people with plenty of energy and ownership but absolutely no alignment, you have a workforce of busy fools or loose cannons creating more problems than they solve.
