Your Immediate Team Culture Is More Important Than Your Company’s Culture

“Culture eats strategy for breakfast,” said Peter Drucker.

“This company doesn’t know what they’re doing,” said everybody in a big company at one point or another.

But,

“Your immediate team culture is more important than your company culture,” said David Burkus.

Hmm. The top has to set the direction, but the bottom has to execute on the strategies for progress to actually happen. When we address culture, the level of the group culture we’re addressing matters greatly.

Check out this quote from Burkus’ piece, “How to Create a Strong Team Culture,”

But while many agree about the importance of company culture, what many fail to understand is that the culture of the team matters more than overall company culture.

Even before the pandemic, the most common interactions individual employees had was with members of their team, not random people elsewhere in the organization. And after the great work from home experiment began, those team interactions only became even more dominant.

So, while company culture matters, smart leaders are paying more and more attention to team culture.

He goes on to explain what makes culture strong (and also what makes a culture toxic). As we move into whatever the next phase our work/life landscape is going to be, remembering where culture matters most can be a superpower.

Get the right people on your bus people. Then, by all means, drive in the right direction too.