Chief Human Resources Officers (CHROs) play a pivotal role in shaping organizational culture and driving the success of an organization – they have a wealth of responsibilities including talent acquisition, development of business strategies, employee well-being and fostering a positive work culture.
However, there’s a critical oversight that some CHROs make: micromanaging organizational culture building to the extent that it stifles the very growth and innovation it aims to foster. It’s time for CHROs to step back and understand that the most effective cultures are built not from the top down, but at the team level – where culture primarily exists.
This article dives deep into the fundamentals of culture, why culture thrives on teams, and the key roles CHROs play in transforming organizational culture. We’ve also included some insights from our recent case study with Blue Cross of Idaho, and how their Chief Human Resources Officer, Janice Baker, has seen positive results from an HR perspective throughout the implementation of IHHP’s innovative Last 8% Culture System.
The Pitfalls of Over-Controlled Culture
To begin, let’s answer the question, “What is company culture?” Company culture is an organic entity, shaped by the values, behaviors, and interactions within an organization. When C-suite executives and CHROs try to overly engineer the formation of organizational culture, they risk creating an environment that lacks authenticity. This top-down approach can lead to a disconnect between what the culture is purported to be and what team leaders and employees actually experience. Moreover, it can inhibit the courage and accountability necessary for a high-performance culture that grows from authentic team experiences and engagement. We firmly believe culture does not exist across an organization. The fundamental unit where culture exists and exerts itself is on teams. For this reason, your people leaders are the critical element to successfully building culture at scale across the organization.
Why Culture Thrives on Teams
The essence of the culture in a business lies within the teams. It is at this level that the day-to-day interactions occur, where collaboration is most immediate, and where the culture is truly tested and expressed. Put your people leaders at the center, giving them the skills and structure to own the culture on their team and empower people across the organization to take risks to drive performance and achieve results.
We had a chance to speak with Janice Baker, the Chief Human Resources Officer at BCI, and she told us about the importance of having a team-focused approach to culture.
“The culture sits at the team level… HR does not drive culture, leaders drive culture, and it’s that Last 8% Culture that they’re driving. Culture starts with the team and if you get that right it permeates throughout the organization.”
The bottom line is culture primarily exists at the team level. By empowering team leaders to own and shape the culture within their teams, CHROs enable a more authentic, adaptable, and resilient organizational culture.
4 Key Roles of CHROs in Facilitating Cultural Shifts
CHROs must take an approach to shaping organizational culture that facilitates rather than dictates the transformation process and outcomes. Here are 4 key roles that CHROs play in cultural transformation:
1. Empowering Leaders at All Levels
Equip team leaders with the tools and autonomy to shape the culture within their teams – it is when leaders are micromanaged in the culture transformation process that it becomes inauthentic and loses impact. Equipping people leaders with a framework to own and collaboratively shape their team’s culture, enhances team members’ sense of control, effort and commitment.
The empowerment of leaders to truly shape and own their team’s culture helps to ensure that the culture is lived and breathed every day, not just espoused from corporate mission statements. Cultural transformation efforts that work at the team level are most effective as they target the fundamental unit where culture primarily exists.
2. Fostering an Environment of Open Communication
Part of having a high performing Last 8% Culture – characterized by high connection and high courage – is possessing a willingness to provide feedback and share ideas that drive innovation and results. It is the responsibility of all organizational leaders, including CHROs, to promote an environment that encourages open communication and honest feedback.
Janice remarked how a major challenge at BCI was having difficult conversations – they had a family culture, characterized by high connection and low courage, that often steered away from difficult Last 8% moments. Their avoidance of difficult conversations and decisions prevented them from taking the risks that drive results and innovation. This changed once BCI implemented the Last 8% Culture System.
“I think our biggest challenge was really having those difficult conversations and doing it effectively. Prior to this training, a lot of our leaders would say, ‘HR, I want you to sit in with us while we have this difficult conversation with our employees.’ And we’re seeing that less and less – they feel confident that they can have those discussions with employees, and employees even feel confident that they’re going to have a good interaction with their managers and it’s not going to go sideways.”
When team members feel psychologically safe to share ideas and don’t feel like sharing their ideas will result in judgment or scrutiny, – a key characteristic of a fear-based culture – innovation can thrive, and the business can grow. CHROs and leaders must have an approach that helps to build trust and ensure that all voices are heard, fostering a more inclusive and connected culture.
3. Modeling Desired Behaviors
CHROs must lead by example in the same way that team leaders must model and own the culture on their individual teams. With the approach to culture taken with the Last 8% Culture System, all levels of the organization become a part of the transformation process, and this includes providing C-suite executives with the framework and strategies to model their desired culture and desired behaviors.
Janice recounted how she saw the impact of this approach at BCI:
“Every single person in the organization got the training, from the CEO to individual contributors to everyone in between along with all new employees. Speaking a common language has really helped it all stick – the system is embedded throughout the company and it’s just resonated with people.”
By demonstrating the values and behaviors that align with the organizational culture, CHROs set a benchmark for others to follow, and can further support the cultural transformation at the team level.
4. Promoting Continuous Learning and Adaptation
Culture is not static; it evolves with the organization and its people. CHROs should promote ongoing learning and adaptation to ensure that the culture remains relevant and supportive of organizational goals as they continuously evolve.
You can hear more from Janice Baker and her experience as a CHRO during culture transformation, other C-suite executives and team leaders, and learn about the organization-wide impact the Last 8% Culture System had at Blue Cross of Idaho here.
Conclusion
For CHROs, the objective is clear: facilitate a culture that empowers rather than restricts, that values courage as much as it does connection, and that is built on the solid foundation of empowered teams. By stepping back and allowing culture to grow organically at the team level and be driven by people leaders, CHROs will enable their organizations to navigate the complexities of modern business with agility and confidence. An understanding and recognition that culture primarily exists at the team level will allow CHROs to craft and inspire an organizational culture transformation that will see real results. The future of organizational culture is not in controlling it but in unleashing its potential through strategic empowerment and alignment at all levels of an organization and a team-focused approach.