Cultivating Micro-Cultures

Imagine you’re standing in the middle of a vast, sprawling garden. Most of the plants are growing at a steady, unremarkable pace. But there, in the corner, is a patch of tomatoes so vibrant and lush they seem to be defying the laws of nature. What’s their secret?

Welcome to the world of micro-cultures, the organizational equivalent of that thriving tomato patch.

In a recent work adventure where I helped shape a new vision, craft a vision story, and increase team performance and engagement, I discovered a fascinating phenomenon with a large team hungry for transformation. Amidst the sea of average performance, one team stood out like a beacon of excellence. They were the office equivalent of superheroes – engaged, effective, productive, collaborative, innovative, and healthier than a kale smoothie. This wasn’t just a happy accident. It was a micro-culture in action.

According to Deloitte’s 2024 Global Human Capital Trends survey, a whopping 71% of business and HR leaders believe that individual teams are the best place to cultivate culture. Yet, only 12% claim to be doing “great things” to support these micro-cultures. Talk about a missed opportunity!

Here’s the kicker: organizations that have embraced micro-cultures are 1.8 times more likely to achieve positive human outcomes and 1.6 times more likely to hit their desired business targets. It’s like finding a cheat code for organizational success.

So, how do we nurture these high-performing micro-cultures?

You don’t have to reinvent the wheel or overthrow the entire organizational structure. Instead, think of it as creating a greenhouse within the more extensive garden.

The first obvious step is to deconstruct the high-performing micro-culture to understand why it excels where others flounder. Study the following:

Gather insights on how they lead and make decisions.
Learn how they communicate with one another, especially when there are conflicting priorities or confusion.
Get to know their spoken or unspoken operating principles that create observable behaviors.
Explore how they fold in new team members and train them on their “way” of working.
Study their “best-day” and “worst-day” behavior, like when they are faced with big deadlines, launches, or meetings.

Once you have the micro-culture blueprint, clear out the weeds on other teams. In organizational terms, that means tackling the barriers to high performance:

Weed out the “meh” accountability that only cares about inching past last year’s performance.
Unearth and remove the invisible “elephants” and attributes that hinder your team’s success.
Refine the decision-making processes that are so archaic or slow that they make snails look like Usain Bolt. This could include revamping your meeting structures.
Review your rules, procedures, and policies (yes, even procurement), which seem designed by a committee of particularly unimaginative bureaucrats.

Next, create the perfect growing conditions.

Streamline meetings because nobody ever said, “Gee, I wish this meeting was longer,” or “I wish I had more meetings on my calendar.”
Refine your decision-making processes and reduce approval requirements. Empower your people to make the right decisions aligned with your strategic framework.
Review and revise your operating principles that guides consistent observable behaviors that create responsibility not just accountability.
Trust your people and recognize outstanding contributions like they are Olympic medals.
Create pollination opportunities that continue to learn and borrow from your highest-performing micro-cultures.

Finally, here’s the secret sauce.

Make your micro-culture an asset to the larger organization.
Be the team everyone wants to work with.
Show appreciation beyond your immediate circle.
Be clear, positive, and productive in your interactions.

In essence, be the office equivalent of that one friend who always brings the best stories, energy, and snacks to the party. Remember, sustaining a micro-culture is like maintaining a prized rose garden—it requires constant care and attention. But get it right, and you’ll have created a pocket of excellence that spreads like master pollinators, inspiring the entire organization.

As Robin Leopold, JPMorgan Chase’s chief human resources officer, puts it, “For an organization of our size and scale, it’s normal for teams to have micro-cultures. But how those cultures come together and rally around our firmwide values… is the secret sauce.”

So, are you ready to cultivate your own high-performing micro-culture? Remember, in the grand garden of your organization, you don’t need to change every plant – nurture your patch to be the juiciest, most vibrant one out there. Before you know it, everyone will be asking for your seeds.

If you want a more trusting team, a culture of belonging or a magnetic brand that attracts more of the right customers, I can help. If you'd like to explore if working together makes sense, drop me a line.

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