#001 - Your culture needs programming...

Read time: 2:30 minutes

Hey! Humberto here.

Here’s the first issue of Invest in the Message to help you build a sustainable operation with people in mind inspired by company culture as a competitive advantage.

Enjoy!

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Big thank you for taking the time to check out my newsletter!

What drives my thinking on this issue is that culture and operations get separated. I’ve always believed in looking at human behavior to get an honest view of your company’s effectiveness.

Processes and metrics only focus on outcomes, which are essential for any operation, but metrics don’t consider people.

So, let’s dive in.

Company culture remains abstract and HR’s responsibility.

Many leaders stop at motivational speeches, missions, visions, and value statements.

My belief, companies don’t think about culture investments until revenue becomes consistent. Without consistent money flowing in, there's limited brainpower available.

This leaves little to no time to consider the work environment.

Plus, my biased belief is that HR gets looked at as the gatekeeper for building company culture.

I’ve sat on both sides of the table, not as an HR professional (which I’m not), but as an executive leader and company employee.

I used HR to provide developmental programs and growth experiences, never limiting access based on position or title.

Yet, at the end of the day, HR ensures your company doesn’t face any legal exposure to labor laws and regulations.

So, who needs to own shaping company culture?

Executives and operational leaders are the real influencers of company culture.

Why?

Leaders represent…

• Revenue growth
• Build operations leveraging organization resources and assets
• Influence daily tactical work
• Develop organizational direction with short-term and long-term strategies
• Reinforce accepted behavior with daily interactions

People look upwards and outwards for inspiration, direction, guidance, and recognition.

This leaves HR on the sidelines reacting to the changing environment.

Leaders operate in real-time.

Yet, culture comes on the radar as operations become more complex. It’s operations before culture.

It happens even though the consensus is “culture is top of mind”. Yet, no proactive work happens to build culture strategically.

77% of senior management feel connected to the company’s purpose vs. 54% for everyone else.

What leads to the disconnect above?

There's a gap in connecting employee experience with purpose and contribution. We must rethink how to make culture tangible to create a universal language.

Your brain develops with real-life, hands-on, and meaningful learning experiences.

Push “culture” into operational strategies by operationalizing culture.

What does that mean?

Representing company culture through daily front-line work.

You get a real-time view of how executives communicate strategy. With a clear understanding, teams align company-wide resources to short-term and long-term strategies.

A vital part, document how co-creation from the bottom-up happens per top-down directives.

This understanding develops and nurtures a universal language for operational leaders. It takes subjective initiatives (strategy) and makes them objective (OKRs).

Everything gets built on your company's inspirational mission represented by shared values and executed on employee contribution.

Your company experiences culture through shared interactions.

Not speeches, perks, and retreats.

So, let's build an inspired organizational existence outside of speeches, perks, and retreats.

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Until the next one, stay present, celebrate the small wins, and involve your people.

Whenever you’re ready, there are 2 ways I can provide support to help you’re company out:

1. Personal consult for organizational leaders where we’ll discuss scaling challenges and you’ll walkaway with 3 actionable leadership strategies.
2. 360° Operations Audit covering an end-to-end assessment of your company to create sustainable operational alignment.

Cheers!🙌

Humberto