People and Culture

In a short time, all WhatsApp community groups (when not regulated) become enquiring places where people ask for connections for any random thing. The core purpose of such professional groups goes for a toss, and people start giving connections for stuff like "a chef for a 10-people party at home". 😂

But once in a while, an interesting topic arises that aligns with the group's core purpose. I am part of ASCENT's HR group, and recently, my fellow ASCENTer Shailesh A Kantak took up an interesting poll on the group. He asked all entrepreneur members of Ascent the following question:

𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐢𝐠𝐠𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐞 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐅𝐚𝐜𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐁𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐧 𝐄𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐓𝐞𝐚𝐦?

And these were the options:

[ ] Attracting and Hiring the right talent (44)

[ ] Retaining skilled employees (15)

[ ] Lack of Accountability and Ownership in the Team (54)

[ ] Building a Positive and Productive Work Culture (13)

[ ] Upskilling and Developing Team Members (23)

The numbers in the bracket are the no. of responses received for each option (one could choose multiple options)

I was perplexed, but then it was in line with what I have learned after interacting with many entrepreneurs over the past decade.

How could 54 members have an issue with their team's "𝐋𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐨𝐟 𝐀𝐜𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐎𝐰𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩" but only 13 members admit that their problem is "𝐁𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚 𝐏𝐨𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐤 𝐂𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞?"

Lack of Accountability is a symptom. The root cause is a lack of Positive Culture.

There are two themes at play here.

Most small business owners tend to blame others for their overall failures. They do not understand (or do not have the tenacity to work harder on that aspect) that the bug stops at them. They are the cause of not building a positive work culture.

The second theme is that they always rush to work on symptoms, not the root causes.

Someone from the group pointed out that all small entrepreneurs struggle to grow, and their foremost objectives when they are in the growth phase are attracting people at the right cost and making the company profitable.

They said, "The luxury of culture development is something that business owners can afford only when they grow to become bigger businesses (50 Crs ++, 100 employees ++)."

I strongly disagreed because I believe culture-building starts at Day One of the organisation. Culture is about what gets applauded and what gets reprimanded in any organisation. It's about "How things are done around here".

My friend Omprakash Gupta made an interesting point about how culture is about respecting your team members as good human beings.

It was an interesting debate after a long, long time.

We recently launched our YouTube channel and have an informative video about People & Culture there (https://youtube.com/HowFrameworks).