What comes first, the Culture or the Strategy

Well, which comes first, the chicken or the egg? The HR professional is starting to ask themselves a
similar question; “which comes first, the development of the culture or the development of the strategy.

Culture is defined as a blend of attitudes, behaviors, actions and beliefs that flourishes with a clear set of
values and norms that actively guide the way an organization operates. I like to say that it is the taste,
smell and feel we can when we come in contact with the organization. This is the origin for the term,
“a fun place to work”. The culture does define the work environment to both the internal and external
customer. Many believe that culture is the environment in which your strategy and your brand lives
or dies. I, like many others, believe that creating the appropriate culture is one of the most important
factors in determine future success.

It has been almost a decade since we feverously created our vision and mission statements. In the
majority of organizations, you will usually find the mission and/or vision statements hanging on the
walls and they probably have not been revised in over ten years. Vision, to me, is the dream of the
organization usually provided by the leadership team. It is a view of what they would like the company
to look like in the future. The Mission Statement on the other hand should be the reason each and
every employee wants to come to work and exhibit a high achieving performance on a daily basis.

We used to break the mission down into purpose. Now, many organizations are translating the purpose
into core values or statements of excellence. This is where the organization needs to associate the
values with the culture. Make sure the values and culture reflect the same meaning to everyone that
enters the building. The culture has to be genuine.

Tips to Maximize Your Productivity

Productivity is getting the desired results by focusing on your high payoff activities
and spending little or no time on your low payoff activities. It is not rocket
science…just a commitment to excellence.

Here are some tips to help you maximize your productivity:

- Keep track and analyze your daily productivity so that you can improve right out of the gate.

- Stop wasting the first hour of your workday. Having the chat and first cup of
coffee, reading the paper, and socializing are the three costliest opening exercises
that lower productivity.

- Do one thing well at a time. It takes more time to start and stop work on each
activity. Stay with the task until it is completed.