The Contented Cow Blog

Building Workplaces That Work

Bill Catlette and I are sometimes asked “What is organizational culture? How does an organization’s culture manifest itself? How does it show?”

The idea of organizational culture can be slippery - hard to put your finger on. Occasionally we see an example that makes it clearer. Here’s one.

During the last week, my wife and I attended two high school graduations in our city, honoring family friends. The two schools in question happen to be private schools, college-preparatory in nature, with high standards, providing superior educations. Both are expensive, with a mix of wealthy families and those somewhat less affluent who struggle to pay the tuition. The two schools attract similar kinds of students, from similar kinds of families, are considered rivals, and both are blessed with beautiful campuses graced with majestic oak trees, on the banks of the St. Johns River. And each had approximately 150 seniors in its graduating class this year.

And yet anyone familiar with these 2 fine institutions would tell you in a minute that they have distinctly different cultures, although they might not be able to put their finger on why. Unless they compared the respective graduation ceremonies.

At one school, the following notice was prominently printed in two places in the commencement program: ”To respect the solemnity of this occasion, we request that you limit your expressions of acknowledgement to appropriate applause. No outbursts of enthusiasm for individual graduates will be tolerated.”

At the other, no such notice was printed. Instead, the Head of School announced, before conferring the diplomas, that “this is a celebration that comes only once in a lifetime. We invite families and friends of each of our graduates to applaud, shout, come up and take pictures, whistle, blow your air horns, whatever you’d like to do to let your graduate know how proud you are of his or her accomplishment. We know this won’t get out of hand, and that you’ll bring your expressions of congratulations to an end before the next student’s name is called.” 

I’m not saying either way is better. They’re just different. And rarely have I seen a clearer example of the differences between two organizational cultures.

Richard Hadden is a leadership speaker, author, and consultant who helps organizations improve their business results by creating a great place to work. He and his co-author and business partner Bill Catlette, are the authors of the new book Contented Cows MOOve Faster, as well as the acclaimed business classic Contented Cows Give Better Milk. Learn more about them and their work at ContentedCows.com.

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