Why all Boards need expertise in culture
Most people who have been anywhere near an MBA know Peter Drucker’s famous phrase “Culture eats strategy for breakfast”. It’s no surprise that someone with a background in People & Culture (me), emphatically agrees with Drucker’s analysis.
Boards are excellent and identify risks, formulating strategy and safeguarding finances, however, many have a real gap in being able to expertly oversee whether the management team has what it takes to put those strategies into action.
Virtually every business is a collection of people and subsequently, human behaviours. The ability and willingness of the people in a business to deliver on a strategy is critical for success.
So, what do Boards need to be asking about people, culture, and productivity? Here’s just a few questions to get you started:
What is the organisation’s culture? What are the rules of belonging? How do we describe and measure it?
Does the organisation have the capability it needs to deliver the strategy? If not, how will it acquire that capability and is that plan realistic?
Do the management team foster a culture and environment that aligns to the strategy? What impact do the leaders in the business have on the people they work with and are they bringing out the best in others?
What are the main people, process and change obstacles to implementing the strategy and how will those obstacles be dealt with?
What are the hidden costs in how people are working? What does the culture encourage and reward and are those behaviours in service of the strategy?
Analysis and knowledge of peoples’ mindsets, practices and behaviours usually answer the questions that a financial statement (alone) can’t.
A Board that can integrate these ideas with traditional perspectives of finance, compliance and risk is a Board that’s set up for success.
The need to understand the people in a business, their capability, their wellbeing and their capacity is particularly critical today when everyone across the globe has been impacted by the same catastrophic stressor – this pandemic. Failing to make adjustments for this very real impact on capacity at Board level is a recipe for disaster.