The Culture “Wonkavador”

As a corporate culture enthusiast, I find myself constantly thinking, what is the right answer when it comes to Corporate Culture? With every client I speak, every article I read, I deepen my own resolve: There is no one right answer. There’s no one magic solution, silver bullet, cookie cutter approach (insert additional idioms here) because culture is a matter of people. Organizational culture should represent the unique nature of its people.

So, the question becomes, how do we approach a corporate culture that will work “in the wild?” There are probably as many opinions and approaches as there are people who write opinions and approaches on corporate culture. In my experience, if you’re looking through a break through, you have to think of all the angles. Which brings us to…

The Culture Wonkavator Approach

Remember at the end of “Willy Wonka” when they introduce “The Glass Wonkavator?” It goes like this:

Willy Wonka: "It's a Wonkavator. An elevator can only go up and down, but the Wonkavator can go sideways and slantways and longways and backways..."
Charlie: "And frontways?"
Willy Wonka: "...and squareways and frontways and any other ways that you can think of."

When we look at corporate culture, it can’t just go from top to bottom, it has to also consider bottom up. And inside out and outside in, slantways, and frontways.

Here’s what that can look like.

1)    Top down

Yes, corporate culture is dependent on leaders setting the tone from the top. This includes thoughtful descriptions of what you want your culture to be (values) how it drives business forward (mission) how each individual is aligned to your mission (purpose) and what it means in the day to day (behaviors). Avoid the ‘Je Nais Se Pas.’ If you can’t articulate it, you can’t replicate it.  These cultural definitions need to be incorporated not only into behaviors, but into systems as well. It needs to be screened for in the recruitment phase. Instilled in the learning phase. And acknowledged in the reward phase. Leaders need to be accountable for setting the direction and steering the ship; employees need to know how and why to row.

Action: Include culture in your leadership agenda. The way to hold leaders accountable is by including them in the decision making process and keeping culture top of mind with regular updates.

2)    Bottom up

Culture starts and ends with people. The more you understand your people and what makes their team performance shine, the more you can create a recipe for future success. These need to be behaviors that work to accomplish company, team and individual performance. Not the same set of behaviors will work from company to company. Think of Zappos and Bridgewater, two companies known for excelling at corporate culture. What works for one will not work for the other. This is where knowing your people and values will create a current state understanding of critical behaviors and a future state understanding of what will engage your talent and drive toward your mission.

Action: Use a design thinking approach (empathy for the win!).  Ensure you don’t just create a 3D printer of talent, include a gap analysis too, in order to understand what the missing ingredient of your secret sauce might be.  

3)    Outside in

What is working in the industry? In the world? This is a great time to do a gap analysis of how ways of work are changing and incorporate what you find motivating into your day-to-day practice in order to appeal to the talent you want at your organization.

Action: Conduct a gap analysis. The “war on talent” is far beyond our historical industry segments. Why do people want to work at a start-up vs legacy establishment? Why do people want to work in a hybrid environment vs in an office?

4)    Inside out

What makes your company special? What are the differentiating factors that attract and retain talent? Why would an employee join? Why would they say? How can you articulate your “secret sauce” to ensure the right people are in the right roles at the right time?  

Action: Conduct “stay” interviews. Not only with the people with the longest tenure, but the influencers who can motivate the masses. The Ripple Effect theory reminds us that title, rank, and tenure aren’t always the qualifiers needed to create change in an organization. It’s the people who sway the conversation at the water cooler that can create a meaningful impact far beyond typical measurements.

5)    Frontways and backways

Corporate culture should be a living, breathing part of your strategy, and it must resonate with every employee. Therefore, it should be revaluated, as times and people continue to change. There may be core pillars to what your company is looking for in the people it employs and the brand it represents, but there might be ways that changes in how it ‘shows up’ over time. Understanding what your core values are will create a way to pressure test when they’re no longer working. As we’ve all learned, disruption can be a good thing, as long as we’re true to our authentic selves in the long run.

Action: Conduct a retrospective from people at multiple levels of the firm. Understanding what’s working well, what can be improved, and creating a plan to address these gaps on a regular basis will go a long way to align your talent to your mission and retain the talent that is making your company blossom.

A great tool to do this is Stuart Spencer’s 8 styles of corporate culture that was included in HBR’s “The Leader’s Guide to Corporate Culture,” which plots culture based on two critical questions: How do people interact (independence vs interdependency) and how do they react to change (Flexibility vs Stability)?

In the end, a healthy corporate culture isn’t just a destination; it’s an ongoing journey fueled by committed leadership and engaged employees working together. Together, they can build a culture that’s authentic, supportive, and designed to propel everyone forward.

If you’re interested in how the Wonkavador approach may work help your organization find a breakthrough, contact us. We’re always happy to “nerd out” on this or other talent and culture topics near and dear to your heart. We've spent our careers helping organizations build cultures that work for their people and adapt to change. Through times of change such as acquisitions and mergers, reduction in force, new business ventures that set a different tone from legacy, and world changing events such as Covid that made us rethink our businesses in their entirety, We’ve always focused on the people side of change.  And we’re borderline obsessed with reimagining our ways of work.