Company Culture is Dead & Microcultures Rise Up | 2-Minute Video

It might be time to rethink company culture.

Change your mindset to microcultures.

They’re the smaller cultures born in groups, such as departments or cross-functional teams. These groups form their own way of managing projects, communicating, handling conflict, hitting goals and getting along — and their way is successful.

When one small group has a positive, effective dynamic, there’s likely something that other teams can learn from that team.

It’s important because researchers at Deloitte found microcultures have a more positive impact on the organization than any one-size-fits all company culture. And really, is there anything such as one-size-fits-all for anything within an organization?

Building on Microcultures

Here’s the better part: You can learn and adapt from the subcultures that work really well — and gain cautionary tales from those that aren’t doing so well.

For instance, if a cross-functional team consistently gets along, hits goals and easily transitions into the next project, they likely have some group dynamics you’ll want to explore and replicate across the company. And if you have a department that is doing the opposite — missing goals, infighting and not transitioning well — you can work with them to find out what can be improved.

In this episode of HRMorning’s 3-Point, one of Deloitte’s researchers, Sue Cantrell, says HR pros and front-line leaders can audit the subcultures to find out what’s working. Then talk with employees about what works for them and how it can be adapted consistently across the organization.

Click, watch and listen for more details on how to rebuild company culture from the smaller cultures that already exist within your organization.

Transcript (edited for clarity):

There’s a new kid in town – and he’s about to destroy company culture.

But you don’t have to fear him. Instead, embrace what he’s bringing to town — microcultures.

Cantrell: Many leaders have been drawn to our trend on workplace microcultures. And what do we mean by workplace microcultures? It’s really those variations in how work gets done in different teams and different functions and different geographies.

That’s it. Company culture may have been overrated for too long. Turns out – and this is according to Deloitte’s Human Capital Trends Report – microcultures have a more positive impact on organizations than a single one-size-fits-all culture.

Here’s the best part: Your company already has these microcultures. And you probably know where the best exist – say Accounting gets everything done ahead of time, or Marketing smashes goals and goes out to celebrate together. Then there are the microcultures that don’t do so well – say Production fights all the time, or Sales hordes data and misses goals.

Fortunately, Cantrell has three tips on how you can maximize the good cultures:

Cantrell: The first tip is there needs to be some consistency in the organization. It can’t be the Wild West and free for all. So setting those organization-wide, high-level, broad values is really important.

No. 2 is to encourage workers to co-create those microcultures. That’s why, across all of our trends, there’s a running theme of kind of co-creation. Involve workers; what do they want? What kind of culture do they want?

Then on the back end, they can see if there’s anything odd going on, or a little toxic, or not aligned with the values. Then go after that. But also share best practices across microcultures as kind of a steward of cultures, if you will.

So, in a capsule:

• Hold company values high – as the backbone for microcultures.
• Encourage employees to build and share their microcultures.
• Monitor your microcultures. Spread the good. Quell the poison.

This is why it might be time to say goodbye to company culture and hello to microcultures.