Sorry, Your Company's Culture Is Not Unique. And That's a Good Thing

Understanding how one organization is similar to others makes it easier to recruit and retain talent, and reduces the danger of self-deception which can lead to suboptimal allocation of resources and strategies. JL

Eric Johnson reports in Re/code:

"Every company I’ve gone into, what I hear is, ‘Our culture is unique!'.”‘People really believe in our values and they think that we’re a cause, so we’re so passionate about the mission!’. “Great. So is pretty much every other company. ‘We give employees flexibility,’ ‘We have benefits no other company offers,’ and ‘We live (have) integrity no other company does.’ The same platitudes over and over.” Th(at) companies remain ignorant of how much they are like their competitors is a problem. When leaders think they are uniquely talented at forging culture, that belief “closes the door to learning.”

Psychologist and management expert Adam Grant has been invited to visit and advise a lot of companies over his career — and over time, he’s noticed a pretty clear theme.

“Almost every company I’ve gone into, what I hear is, ‘Our culture is unique!’” Grant said. “And then I ask, ‘How is it unique?’ and the answers are all the same.”

“I hear, ‘People really believe in our values and they think that we’re a cause, so we’re so passionate about the mission!’” he added. “Great. So is pretty much every other company. I hear, ‘We give employees unusual flexibility,’ ‘We have all sorts of benefits that no other company offers,’ and ‘We live with integrity in ways that no other company does.’ It’s just the same platitudes over and over.”

The potential for companies to remain ignorant of how much they are like their competitors is funny — but it’s also a serious problem, Grant said. When leaders think they are uniquely talented at forging company culture, that belief “closes the door to learning.”

He also railed against another common corporate platitude: Managers who say, “Don’t bring me problems, bring me solutions.”

“I do get why leaders say this,” Grant said. “They want people to be constructive, they don’t want them to whine and complain. But I think if you create a culture where people can only speak up when they have a solution, you will never hear about the biggest problems, which are too hard for one person to solve.”