Entrepreneurship #6 - Cultural Streetlights
Last week at my university’s annual Management Conference, I was struck by the contrast between keynote speaker Satya Nadella’s thoughts and one of the thoughts from a breakout session about behavioral economics.
A breakout session panelist described [corporate] culture as, “The most important part of business that we know the least about.” Although acknowledging the importance of culture to corporate success, he went on to say that behavioral scientists generally teach the science that they DO know and can MEASURE.
Satya, on the other hand, when asked about analytics, commented (and I paraphrase here so don’t quote him per se), “Analytics, sure - but you have to give people oxygen to breathe. Unlock forces, lead not manage. It’s a growth strategy culture.”
I heard Satya building from two of his main premises earlier in his keynote - that you have to care about people from the very beginning - not AFTER you become a manager or leader - and that a growth mindset combined with a clear mission produces the right trajectory for success.
The behavioral economists who study what they can measure - and lament that culture is important but tough to measure - remind me of the people who look for their lost car keys under the streetlight. They know the keys aren’t there, but at least there is light to see. I suspect they won’t get the results they want.
I love Satya’s approach of giving your team oxygen to stimulate the culture that can have that important impact on success. As you do that, it seems to me that you will learn more and more about how different cultural practices affect success - shining a light on what works.
Let’s call that building Cultural Streetlights.