Are you building a culture or a cult?
A few weeks back I was fortunate to get an advance copy of my friend Shane Hatton’s new book (which is out now) ‘Let’s Talk Culture’.
In it, he shared research from Dr Janja Lalich, professor of sociology, California State University, from her book called Escaping Utopia: Growing Up in a Cult, Getting Out, and Starting Over about the characteristics of cults. I found the section fascinating, but also confronting because it made me realise that not only have I been a member of a workplace ‘cult’ myself, but I may also have unconsciously built one or two as well.
In the research, Dr Lalich describes the characteristics of a cult, one of which is a system of control. This characteristic contains norms around communication, dress, diet etc., which immediately reminded me of a team that I was part of where everyone had a nickname. If you were new to the team or an external person working with us, then these nicknames were alien to you and some of them sounded downright unfriendly! We’d unwittingly created an environment that excluded people who didn’t understand our way of communicating with each other.
The same is also true of organisations that have an acronym dictionary! The existence of an acronym dictionary is a way of saying, ‘we’re no good at communication, so rather than get better at it, we’re going to create a language that only we understand’. In order to become a member of the cult(ure) you have to learn this language.
Of course, cults are generally really bad things. Notable cults included the Manson family, the Branch Davidians and the People’s Temple. The latter was led by Jim Jones and led to the tragic Jonestown Massacre where he convinced over 900 people to drink a flavour-aid laced with cyanide. In reporting on this, the media likened the event to the people ‘drinking the Kool-Aid’, which has now entered our lexicon as a metaphor for workplace cultures where people will believe anything that they’re told and willingly follow a charismatic leader. In these kinds of cultures, people often give up who they are for what they do and who they’re doing it for.
Often these kinds of cultures drive high performance, something that author Jim Collins spoke to in his book From Good to Great, saying, ‘A cult-like culture can actually enhance a company’s ability to pursue Big Hairy Audacious Goals, precisely because it creates that sense of being part of an elite organisation that can accomplish just about anything.’
However, when it generates behaviour that undermines workplace safety and leads to the alienation of others, then results will be adversely affected, particularly when this behaviour is driven from the top.
The most recent case study for this is WeWork. I watched the excellent documentary WeWork: Or the Making and Breaking of a $47 Billion Unicorn recently and it was cult-like in every dimension. From the free food and bizarre team rituals, to the days of partying in remote places, owner Adam Neumann sought to hoodwink not only staff but also investors with his claim that WeWork was a technology (and not a real estate) company. Yet hundreds and hundreds of people bought into it.
Neumann was talking a language that they wanted to understand. He was building a belief system that they wanted to adopt and was using his charisma to draw more and more people in. Of course, the WeWork story ended badly for Neumann. His failure to elucidate a coherent strategy from which to build a sustainable, safe corporate culture, led to his removal as CEO and, but for the commitment of Japanese financial institution SoftBank, would have bankrupted the business.
So how do you spot whether you have a culture or a cult? Here are some signs:
- You use a language or terminology that no-one understands
- You have a charismatic leader who can do no wrong
- Feedback is discouraged and/or ignored
- No-one questions cultural norms that alienate others
- People are made to feel guilty for not ‘joining in’
- Commitment is questioned when people don’t adopt (often unproductive) cultural norms
- The team culture doesn’t conform to the organisation’s values, philosophies or principles.
The actions that managers can take to avoid (consciously or unconsciously) building a cult are as follows:
- Ask yourself whether the culture is about you or whether it contains you
- Don’t create acronyms or build systems that only you and your incumbent team understand
- Ensure that new members of the team are hired to challenge and improve existing ways of doing things rather than conform to them
- Avoid events and rituals that seek to make the team look unique
- Define your team culture to be in line with that of the organisation not adjunct to it.
In his book Corporate Cults, The Insidious Lure of the All-Consuming Organisation author David Arnott said, ‘Corporate cults are like dysfunctional families in which there are no boundaries between the individual member and the family.’ He’s right. Boundaries create safety, transparency, accountability and ultimately lead to a culture of continual improvement for all, not just for the personalities and egos that cults have been created to enhance.
There are many organisations continually selling the specialness of their culture, but if you have to give up your identity to be admitted then they are never worth joining. Drinking the Kool-Aid is not a wellness tool, it is the antithesis of it.
