PIC No. 31:
• Title: Culture Is the Way: How Leaders at Every Level Build an Organization for Speed, Impact, and Excellence
• Author: Matt Mayberry
• Publisher: Wiley (Feb. 1, 2023, 272 pages)
• Management Bucket #8 of 20: The Culture Bucket
Welcome to Issue No. 31 of PAILS IN COMPARISON, the value-added sidekick of John Pearson’s Buckets Blog. This blog features my “PICs”—shorter reviews of helpful books—with comparisons to other books in my 20 management buckets (core competencies) filing system.
What to Do When the CEO Isn’t in the Room
Speaking of football…
OK, I confess. I’m still a Chicago Bears football fan. During my 21 winters in the Chicago area, the best year was 1986 when the Bears defeated the New England Patriots by the score of 46–10 in Super Bowl XX.
So when author Matt Mayberry noted that he was a linebacker for the Chicago Bears in 2010—count me in! I had to read his helpful book, Culture Is the Way: How Leaders at Every Level Build an Organization for Speed, Impact, and Excellence. I do love books on culture!
If you’ve been around the block a few years, you’ll groan and grimace at the memory of those perky (and pesky) consultants who arrive with handouts, PowerPoints, and big smiles. The goal: review and update (if you have them) your mission, vision, values, and BHAGs. (Spare me!)
Warning! Mayberry has been in your boardrooms and in your hallways—and on your Zoom calls. He recalls one meeting with 20 leaders and—big surprise—“everyone had their own definition of what the culture was.”
“As the leaders shared their suggestions with me, I took notes and wrote down everything they said. After about ten minutes, I asked, ‘Do you realize what just happened? Even though all of you shared what you thought made this organization special and the culture here, I have 35 different things written down on this piece of paper.’”
YES: 35 IDEAS ON CULTURE! If you’re laughing about that organization, are you gutsy enough to bombard your team members with a POP QUIZ? “In one sentence, describe the culture of our company/organization/church.” (Get ready for the wide-ranging responses—from the ho hum to the absurdly theoretical.)
Need help? Culture Is the Way delivers the who, what, where, why, and how. Mayberry’s book is amazingly comprehensive, but not pedantic. It’s readable—with dozens of in-the-trenches examples, thoughtful quotations, plus roadblocks and playbooks.
The author quotes Frei and Morriss: “Culture tells us what to do when the CEO isn’t in the room, which is of course most of the time.”
And this from Hall of Famer Bill Walsh, head coach of the San Francisco 49ers (1979-1988), who led his team to three Super Bowl wins:
“The culture precedes positive results. It doesn’t get tacked on as an afterthought on your way to the victory stand. Champions behave like champions before they’re champions. They have a winning standard of performance before they are winners.”
I’ve always appreciated Patrick Lencioni’s insight in The Advantage. Lencioni says that “bad meetings are the birthplace of unhealthy organizations and good meetings are the origin of cohesion, clarity and communication.” He adds, “If someone were to offer me one single piece of evidence to evaluate the health of an organization, I would not ask to see its financial statements, review its product line, or even talk to its employees or customers: I would want to observe the leadership team during a meeting.”
Likewise, Mayberry defines culture eloquently (read the book!) and warns that you “either have a culture by default or a culture by design.” What do you have? His list of nine things that culture is NOT, include:
• “Culture is not the flexibility to work three days per week.”
• “Culture is not reciting the company’s mission statement at team meetings.”
• “Culture is not supposed to make everyone happy.”
He lists five key elements of a positive culture, including the imperative of “clear expectations.” He cites research showing that “only 41% of employees agree that their job descriptions accurately reflect the daily work they perform.” (Spoiler alert: talent is a big deal.)
What’s the big deal about creating a flourishing culture? In his conversations with senior leaders, “The common thread is that almost every leader voiced remorse for putting culture on the backburner for something they thought was more essential.”
Must-read sections:
• The Shiny Object Syndrome (including new HR tracking systems and offsite leadership retreats!)
• The Five Roadblocks to Cultural Excellence (including lukewarm leadership buy-in and “all slogans and no action”)
• Should you deputize a “Chief Culture Officer?”
• Why Tom Peters recently said, “The hard skills are the soft skills. The soft skills are the hard skills. The time has come.”
• Why you need a “Cultural Purpose Statement” (and…oops…what he did in a meeting with 60 senior leaders when no hand was raised in response to his culture question. Yikes!) See his list of 10 questions on creating the statement.
“Employees Outsmart Surveillance!” Still not convinced that companies have a culture crisis? Read this Jan. 11, 2023, article in The Wall Street Journal: “Mouse Jigglers, Fake PowerPoints: Workers Foil Bosses’ Surveillance Attempts. Companies that track employees’ productivity run up against their inventive workarounds.” Yikes!
HELPFUL! Some books inspire, but leave out the critical steps. Mayberry inspires and delivers insights and implementation plans, plus helpful profiles on legendary football coaches and leadership gurus. He also warns about “Six Helpful Pain Points.” Must-read: #2, “Misrepresentation of old mindsets and behaviors.”
His four action steps in the “Culture Implementation Playbooks” (yes…even football and baseball teams have detailed playbooks—with culture guidelines) are detailed, but not overwhelming. Read why Mayberry strongly recommends you create and affirm a one-page “Behavioral Manifesto.”
AGREE/DISAGREE? I enjoyed an interesting text conversation with a good friend—a zealot for strong team cultures—and he told me he pushes back on Richard Branson’s belief (noted in the book) that “Clients do not come first. Employees come first. If you take care of your employees, they will take care of the clients.” (Agree or Disagree?)
Mayberry pushes back on the statement often attributed to Peter Drucker, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” Read his concern that this oft-quoted one-liner might unnecessarily denigrate strategy. (I love contrarian push-backs, even if it’s to question the father of modern management!)
I’ll close with Mayberry’s salute to Simon Sinek in Start with Why: “There are two ways to influence human behavior. You can manipulate it, or you can inspire it.”
Culture Is the Way will inspire you to inspire your team. Mayberry also quotes Peter Drucker’s good friend, Frances Hesselbein, the former CEO of the Girl Scouts, who died Dec. 10, 2022, at age 107 (not a typo). “Culture changes when the organization is transformed; the culture reflects the realities of people working together every day.”
PAILS IN COMPARISON: Reading this book reminded me of several other must-read books in the Culture Bucket, plus other buckets/core competencies.
[ ] The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else in Business, by Patrick Lencioni (read my review)
[ ] In Search of Excellence: Lessons from America’s Best-Run Companies, by Thomas J. Peters and Robert H. Waterman, Jr. (read my review)
[ ] The Softer Side of Leadership: Essential Soft Skills That Transform Leaders and the People They Lead, Eugene B. Habecker (read my review)
[ ] Road to Flourishing: Eight Keys to Boost Employee Engagement and Well-Being, by Al Lopus with Cory Hartman (read my review)
[ ] The Cubs Way: The Zen of Building the Best Team in Baseball and Breaking the Curse, by Tom Verducci (read my review)
[ ] Talent: The Market Cap Multiplier, by Ram Charan and Anish Batlaw (read my review)
To order from Amazon, click on the title for Culture Is the Way: How Leaders at Every Level Build an Organization for Speed, Impact, and Excellence, by Matt Mayberry. Listen on Libro (available Feb. 28, 2023). For more book reviews, visit John Pearson’s Buckets Blog and subscribe to Your Weekly Staff Meeting. And thanks to the publisher for sending me a review copy.
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