Is your culture a secret weapon or a critical weakness?

Everything in the Marine Corps culture is driven to reinforce the values of honour, courage, and commitment. Marines are taught to fight with honour, live with honour. They are punished, even to the point of being cast out of the Marine Corps, for less than honourable conduct. Courage has an obvious value in a tribe of warriors. Commitment is never leaving a task unfinished or letting down a teammate. All of these traits stem from and lead back into the Marine Corps’ culture and are core to its success. Pulitzer Prize-winning author Thomas Ricks has written extensively about the military; he is fascinated by the Marine Corps culture and describes it as ‘part of the fabric of American myth.’ Ricks explains the value of culture by comparison:

Another example of an organisation using a ‘good' culture to its advantage is the All Blacks. Named for their distinctive black on black uniforms, the All Blacks are one of the most successful sports teams in history. They have won 77% of their matches, going back to 1903; of the world’s 20 elite-most teams, they have never lost a match to 12 of them, and have winning records against all of them. Rugby is unique in the sports world for two reasons. Each player plays a unique position which is designated by their jersey number. Every sport has specific positions, but only rugby labels them so clearly that all know who is doing their job well (or poorly!). Secondly, rugby is a fast-paced game with little breaks in the action to allow coaching from the sideline. Consequently, the players must coach themselves to make in-game adjustments as required. Culture within any rugby team becomes more important. With the All Blacks, it is paramount. Jim Kearns wrote a book, Legacy, about the importance of culture to the All Blacks. In it, he characterises 15 cultural elements vital to the All Blacks’ success. Some include Character (‘You are never too important to do the little things that must be done.’; ‘The challenge is to improve, always move forward, even when you are the best. Especially when you are the best.’; ‘The impressive success of the All Blacks on the field come from a particular way of behaving outside of it. Your role is to leave the shirt in a better place.’), Purpose (‘If you have people who believe what you believe, they will work for you with blood, sweat, and tears’), Responsibility (‘Shared responsibility means shared ownership. A feeling of inclusion allows individuals to feel more willing to surrender to the common cause.’) and Expectations (‘If you insist on only doing the best, you often get it.’). His final chapter in the book captures the essence of culture to the All Blacks: it’s titled Be a Good Ancestor and its focus is on the value the All Blacks put on preparing future generations of players. The chapter’s capstone quote, and indeed the theme of the book, is ‘The shirt is not yours. You are only the body that wears the shirt at that time. Our job is to continue the legacy and make it grow every time we have the opportunity.’

In an interesting connection, Legacy is so descriptive of the importance of positive culture, the Commandant of the Marine Corps gave a copy to every General Officer in the Marine Corps and ordered them to read it. His message was clear: ‘You play for name on the front of the jersey, not the name on the back.’ To use an American cowboy expression, he told all the Generals in the Marine Corps ‘to ride for the brand’ and make sure all their actions enhanced the culture of the Marine Corps. Thomas Peters and Robert Waterman, in their famous business book In Search of Excellence, categorise negative culture and give several examples of companies whose poor culture contributed to their detriment. There is ‘The Arrogant Company’ who believes ‘we have succeeded for so long; we always are going to succeed.’ The authors give Xerox in the 1980s as an illustration. ‘Gambler’ companies have an overriding compulsion to take risks and the Dot Com startups of the 1990s provide many examples. ‘Politics R Us’ organisations thrive on drama, with little actual production. Both ironically and appropriately, the U. S. Congress during Presidential election years is a striking example. Blockbuster serves as a model of a company with a flawed ability to make timely decisions. PepsiCo during the ‘Cola Wars’ of the 1980s serves as a marker for the ‘Paranoid Corporation’ which focuses too much on what a competitor is doing at the expense of what they do. The list goes on. Peters and Waterman examine several companies who list a strong culture as key to their success. Interestingly, for a book written in the 80s, some of these include Walmart, Starbucks, and Southwest Airlines, who remain successful companies today. The authors propose that organisational culture is an economic asset – if managed correctly. They go on to note that it is ‘virtually impossible to copy or replicate somebody else’s culture.’ If quality cultures cannot be borrowed, then they must be created. How then is this done? It frequently falls to the chief of staff to create, manage, or change the culture in a positive manner. Culture is both created and cultivated by the same factors. It must be reinforced, modelled, and acted upon consistently. Reinforcement comes from narrative and repetition. First, the desired cultural traits must be explained. Then stories are created about them that appear in the narrative and this narrative is repeated to every audience internal and external to the organisation. Success begins when others in the organisation tell the same stories and use the same narrative.

It is reported that the next day 5000 people lined up to volunteer. Whether true or not, it does sum up that Ernest Shackleton selected for, created and maintained a culture of heartiness, that directly contributed to his crew’s survival. Like the Marine Corps’ culture of honour, courage, and commitment, and the All Blacks’ culture of leaving the shirt in a better place, organisations can use culture to represent what is important to them. Culture is either an asset or a liability; a chief of staff must understand which it is and manage it accordingly.