EMB
The Universal Secret to
HIGH-PERFORMING CULTURE
BY LINDSAY MCGREGOR
& NEEL DOSHI
A
staggering 90% of business leaders believe that culture
is one of their most critical assets, but most admit to
not knowing how to systematically build and maintain a
high-performing one. The challenge may seem more daunting
as our world becomes a tighter-knit village; as the head of a
multinational recently asked us, “How do I create a great culture
that extends from Nigeria to Malaysia to Peru?”
First, we must agree on what culture is. Until now, culture has
been treated like a perks arms race o r a set of feel-good words
memorialized on walls and mouse pads around an office. In
reality, culture is the sum of systems and processes that people
must interact with in the course of their work. This ecosystem
matters because it tells your people why they should work:
“Should I create this financial model because I enjoy solving
analytical puzzles or because I don’t want to disappoint
my manager?”
Through our new research into what fundamentally differentiates
the highest-performing companies and people from the rest,
we discovered that why we work determines how well we work.
Interestingly, this rang true for employees worldwide. Regardless
of background or nationality, performance is a product of your
motives, which in turn, are a product of culture.
But not all motives are created equal.
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