MPW Next-Gen: How leaders can foster an organizational culture that embraces diverse perspectives
Research consistently shows that a strong organizational culture creates better business outcomes. But getting organizations to understand a company’s culture—and what values and goals drive it—can be a more difficult task.
“Sometimes we define [culture] how things work here and how it makes you feel,” Sabrina Clark, managing partner of consulting firm SYPartners, told attendees wealth‘s Most Powerful Women Next Gen Summit on Wednesday.
The panellists agreed that building a successful corporate culture requires a holistic approach. It cannot just be driven by HR or a single manager. It takes space and openness for everyone to share new ideas. The workforce needs to change to better accommodate different perspectives. And it’s important to keep track of progress, but scorecards cannot be viewed as a magical cure for cultural challenges.
Toyota strives to change the auto giant’s culture, both by embracing what makes it a great company and changing for the future. “Anything from the past may not be what you want to take with you into the future,” said Holly Walters, Toyota Motor North America’s chief information officer and group vice president of information systems.
As a global player, Toyota’s culture blends the company’s Japanese culture with what it is worldwide. A central pillar of how Toyota thinks about the evolving culture reflects kaizen, a Japanese term that refers to continuous improvement.
“You have to have the courage to let go of something that’s there and replace it with something better,” Walters said. “You have to be willing to fail. And when you fail, how do you fail quickly and move forward?”
On the other end of the cultural spectrum is Overjet, which was founded just four years ago by Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduate students, including co-founder and CEO Wardah Inam. Inam said she was able to create the company and culture she wanted to be a part of – and ultimately must take responsibility for the common thread that binds the entire company together.
“This cannot be the responsibility of a few – it must be everyone,” said Inam.
Startups like Overjet, a global leader in dental artificial intelligence, are often tasked with thinking about the role culture plays in innovation.
Inam said she looks at it in terms of three Ts: trust, time and tools. Trust so team members can work together but also challenge each other. The time it takes to innovate. And the right tools to ensure Overjet can innovate quickly.
And while panellists agreed that scorecarding can keep organizations on track, such metrics must contain nuance. Who judges the progress? And how does this change show up not just in metrics, but in practice?
This work can lead to large, far-reaching systemic changes over the course of many years and is often very personal to each individual. Clark said in the midst of any change, it’s important to anchor people in what isn’t changing, but then explain what is evolving.
“You’re not necessarily afraid of change,” she said. “You are afraid of loss.”
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