I INDUSTRY INSIGHT I
Right Culture VS Wrong Culture E.T. Khor, Culture Transformation Expert discusses why it’s crucial to have the right working culture to get optimum results. DOES THIS SCENARIO SOUND FAMILIAR? A Marketing Executive just emailed his colleague in Finance to request for some numbers. He needs this information in order to run his next campaign. Somehow, the response from finance took too long, which resulted in the marketing campaign having to be delayed and they missed out on a window of opportunity to market their product. As expected, the Marketing team accused Finance of being slow in their response, and Finance responded by saying Marketing came to them at the last minute and didn’t specify when they needed the information. While both Marketing and Finance had their points, it can also be said both played their part in contributing to the problem. The fact is, this could have been averted had there been a culture of openness and accountability between the parties involved. Culture is the sum of behaviours of the individuals in a team or organisation. Much of these behaviours will be guided by the values in the organisation. So why is having the right culture so important?
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Culture Drives Performance
If a company has a culture where all the staff take accountability in the organisation’s results (not just their teams or departments), everyone would have been aware and concerned about ensuring the marketing campaign was able to run on time. Could the Finance staff have taken the initiative to find out
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how important or urgent the request was? Perhaps the Marketing staff should have also explained this upfront, instead of just making a request for information. Having everyone in the company being accountable creates an environment where everyone does what is needed to deliver the best service, complete a project or meet a deadline, instead of just waiting and finger pointing when things go wrong.
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Constant Improvement Is A Must!
Leaders should be constantly looking to develop their people as this creates a culture of wanting to improve constantly. Having a mindset of seeking to learn and a desire to change things around will usually bring benefits such as processes shortened, errors reduced, revenues improved and costs being reduced. That is because everyone is constantly looking to see where else we can do better.
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It’s All About Having A Happy Environment
Nobody wants to work in a miserable work environment, regardless of how much the pay is or how glamourous the company may be. A positive culture means everyone working towards a common goal, ever y individual playing their roles and having great leadership and teamwork. This can increase motivation, reduce turnover and basically have your people look forward to coming to work every morning.
E.T. KHOR (Khor Eng Tat) • Culture Transformation Expert • Certified PEAKS Psychometric Consultant • Certified Professional Trainer (HRDF/PSMB & Western Kentucky University) H/P : +6012-390 6772 E-mail : et@etkhor.com Website: www.apacconsultancy.com E.T. Khor is a Culture Transformation Expert. With 10 years of training and consulting experience, he specialises in culture transformation, mindset change, leadership, personality development, change management and team development. ET has worked and trained in Malaysia, China, Singapore, Brunei and UK. His programs are able to impact people, change behaviours and are trackable/measurable.