If everything is now culture, then nothing is, and a company’s culture is too important to blame for everything that has not been resolved in time.
It is common to come across the term “digital culture” to refer to the lack of it by companies that are perceived as lagging behind in the race to take advantage of technology, in a constantly changing digital world. The use of this concept is caused by a combination of software sales and consultancy marketing along with a certain tendency towards the economy of language and the indiscriminate use of buzzwords. But above all, it may be motivated by a lack of knowledge that can be particularly counterproductive in the case of attempting a digital transformation process, causing a certain inability to diagnose and help an organization to change.
In reality, when talking about a company’s lack of “digital culture,” one may want to refer to its historical technological delay, that is, the technological debt incurred with itself for not being able to align the needs of its operations with the proper evolution of its technology. Or it may also be possible to think about the improvable quality of its software development and the recommended renewal of the methodologies with which it is carried out. It may undoubtedly refer to the lack of technology knowledge among its teams (from the CEO to anyone in the organization) and surely reproach the inability to develop new value propositions based on technologies with disruptive capabilities. But, none of these issues have much or anything to do with a company’s culture.
If technology was considered a critical asset when conceiving or revising the business model; if the appropriate level of knowledge was not available at the time to make decisions regarding technology; if it was not considered important to invest time and money in a certain level of learning; or historically, if the goal-setting, planning, and budgeting process has historically overlooked technology updates, all these issues belong to the realm of a company’s strategic design, not its culture.
When we talk about a company’s culture, we are referring to mental models, values, and the traditional way of doing things that are transmitted through example and habits over time. If we turn to famous quotes from great management figures, perhaps it will become clearer what a company’s culture really is. That one saying “culture is what happens when the boss leaves the meeting room” is very provocative, or the one ensuring that “your company’s culture is what makes you excited to go to work every morning,” but probably the most famous and wise when it comes to making significant changes in an organization, is Peter Drucker’s quote: “culture eats strategy for breakfast.” In this sense, it is necessary to understand that the set of informal rules and traditions exert a strong influence on behavior within the company. The historical way of solving problems and making decisions, which is also an important part of a company’s culture, can generate considerable resistance to change, and that is why it is especially important to understand it, diagnose it, and work on it specifically, understanding how it is formed and what strategies can be implemented to change it.
When it comes to achieving cultural evolution, another aspect that is often overlooked, but above all unknown, is that we must also take into account the existence of different subcultures within a company, which complicates things a little bit more. They can be generated by corporate, ethnographic, or occupational issues, and we must detect them to integrate them into our change strategies. In the retail world, cultural differences between “store” teams and “central services” are classic, something that may be increasing as certain “new” professions become more relevant in the company’s future, as they are catalysts for digital transformation initiatives and, at the same time, leading examples of demands for a new way of working. IT teams are a clear example of subcultures within a company.
To face the complex journey of digital transformation with certain guarantees, it is vital to understand that this type of analysis and deliberations are not trivial. On the contrary, if we truly want to be able to help our organization transform, it is vital to know how to perform a good Organizational Design exercise, which integrates the analysis of the company from three perspectives: strategic, political, and cultural. This work helps differentiate them to act on them with a systemic approach and to consider overlaps and interactions of perspectives in a holistic vision that we should not do without.
