94% of entrepreneurs and 88% of job seekers say that healthy workplace culture is vital for success.
A lot rides on the organizational culture, and this is why. Organizational culture is the sum of the standard practices with which an organization functions with. Also known as the corporate culture, it includes the way of thinking, experiences, the belief system as well as all future expectations. They are externalized through the training given, office environment, team interactions, meetings, and how authority presents themselves. These values and etiquette are then subconsciously internalized by the employees just by being a part of the organization. In an organization, culture is not just a part of the system; it is the entire system which includes performance, principles, communication, and teamwork etc.
It is thus not far-fetched to say that the culture is like the operating system for an organization. In other words, organizational culture is the collective behaviour of its employees, and the organization becomes the collective capacity of those employees. Creating value is the primary function of any organization. So, the more the value, the better the achievement rate for that goal. The path to creating more value is via enhancing the performance of the organization. The culture that enables superior performance/results is called a high-performance culture.
There are a few questions that would come to mind in this aspect.
- Are the organizations with a high-performance culture dependent on performance or results? What would decide their success?
- If not this, what else would be taken into account?
- How to create a high-performance culture?
- How long does it take to achieve a high-performance culture?
- Does OKR play a role here?
- If so, how can OKR help to attain a high-performance culture?
This article answers all the above questions while also getting little in-depth on high-performance culture and its attainment by means of the goal-setting framework like OKR. Its body of content aims to give leaders insight into critical business practice and solutions to crucial pain points for business success.
It is not just about results
A company’s success does not depend on the result alone. Like we discussed earlier, it includes performance, principles, communication, and teamwork. Employee experience in the organization is another critical ingredient. The career growth and long-term success of the employee and organization are considered when talking about high-performance companies.
A high-performance culture ensures productive, motivated, and engaged employees. It helps avoid stagnation and move towards growth and competitiveness. Therefore, high-performance companies are those that achieve financial and non-financial goals for a long time over their peers and competitors. While leadership and discipline are among the most important factors that enforce the performance culture, organizations should be aware that they are not the only factors. When the employees do not get a chance to participate in certain goal-setting activities, they tend to feel suffocated by the rules set for them.
On the other hand, a well-articulated strategy combined with discussions provides the opposite effect of hierarchy and rules. They give closure to the employees and make them accountable on multiple levels. When discipline is encouraged positively, there is no need for bureaucracy; and when the leadership is communicative, there is no need for excessive force.