Dive Brief:
- It's almost become a mantra: How can HR align company culture with business strategy? Anthony Abbatiello, a partner in Deloitte’s human capital practice, told Talent Management that in the end, culture actually is how the business strategy becomes reality. He defines culture, in fact, as the “set of values and attributes that shape how things get done in the organization."
- To help employers get there, Deloitte offers a product called CulturePath, which defines behaviors needed to support business, assesses a company’s current culture, and compiles insights that can guide the company in the future.
- Abbatiello told Talent Management the focus should be around aligning culture with the business strategy. To do so, he recommends defining what it means to live the culture, systematically reinforcing the behavior (the kind that highlights desired culture) and have leaders tell stories.
Dive Insight:
Abbatiello told Talent Management that there is a power of storytelling in an organization that is really important for the culture and for connecting emotionally with a workforce.
When communicating the importance of taking risks, he said employees will respond to a story about a risk the leader took, how they failed and what they learned. It's more powerful than simply hearing a leader say “Take risks."
He emphasizes that storytelling is particularly effective because it helps express the emotion behind a culture goal. “Emotions are the driving force for human behavior, much more than reason,” Abbatiello told Talent Management, adding that its a good idea to use that to an organization’s advantage to build or create the culture that best matches business strategy.
