THE HEART AND SOUL OF CULTURE

Two business consultants make the case for having a strong, principled corporate culture.

Hinton and debut author Yager draw on their own research and experience as they promote their firm’s disciplined approach to helping organizations transform their cultures and become “conscious” businesses. Despite the underlying sales pitch, their book could prove quite helpful to senior executives, beginning with its definition of a “Culture”—“that inexplicable element called energy that attracts customers to your stores or website.” The first chapter explains why it’s important to have a positive culture and what can happen if an organization has a toxic one. As examples of the harmful effects of dysfunction, the authors cite well-known organizations and their missteps—USA Gymnastics (sexual abuse convictions by the team doctor), the Catholic Church (pedophile priests), and Facebook (exposed user data)—along with a smaller number of positive cultures. Such missteps reflect the authors’ belief that “unconscious companies and organizations pay when their leaders’ thoughts and actions are corrupted by greed, self-indulgence, neglect, bad decision-making, arrogance and plain old stupidity.” The remainder of the book lays out the fundamentals of a positive culture, relying largely on concepts used by the authors’ the San Diego-based firm, CRI Global CAPS, which they plug frequently. Those concepts include the “Culture Spectrum” (a four-quadrant analysis of corporate cultures); “The Five Ps of Culture” (“Purpose,” “Principles,” “People,” “Processes,” and “Performance,” each covered in a separate chapter); and a “Culture Playbook,” a term the authors always italicize. The playbook is perhaps the most intriguing element; it uses the Five Ps to build “a roadmap for managing risk,” with an assessment of the organization’s culture as a first step. The book closes with “A Leader’s List of Conscious Business Principles,” 22 tips and observations that include “Encourage people to carry the message to the top, regardless of whether they bear good news or bad news.” Recommendations like “Share the credit when you succeed, but not the blame when you fail” may be overfamiliar to avid readers of guides for managers, but others may see them as needed reminders of the basics of good business practice.

Sound—if self-promotional—advice on creating a sturdy organizational culture.