They say that “culture eats strategy for breakfast.” I wasn’t really sure what this meant when I first heard it. Then, gradually, when the CEO of the company where I work explained it, it turned to imply that the culture of your company always determines success regardless of how effective your strategy may be.
Our CEO also believes in the power of certain things that power our culture like riding broken bicycles, grooming ugly balls, and turning apple into oranges.
Now, here’s the thing, I’ve never written about my career on this public journal of mine, but I feel like sharing something special through this piece.
I was going through pictures on my phone of the past month at work. They were all random pictures and videos taken at different times; selfies from field visits, videos from the car commuting between meetings, and pictures from the office documenting what I believe to be important moments for us to look back and reflect on. In every picture, there was a story of a certain ‘first time’ for one of the team members. Looking through them, I realized the beauty of the culture that brings us together as a team.
Here’s what our culture means:
When riding broken bicycles, we learn that we should build our capacity as we move into projects and not before starting the project.
We fix the bike as we ride it.
Sometimes, when faced with a new big project with a lot of unknowns, we may hesitate to take it because we may not have the capacity to carry the project at the time. But what the broken bicycle concept teaches us is that we should fix the bike as we ride it. The wheels are still turning, and our determination is the engine to not only run it, but also fix it better than it was before with the knowledge that we gain along the way.
In terms of ugly balls, well, everything starts messy. Imagine having a ball with a sphere that’s not whole yet with different shaped bumps all over it. The ball is so bad and ugly that you can’t even roll it. But it's still in your hands, and you could do something with it. Your goal is to eventually have a whole clear crystal ball that’s perfect enough you could almost see through it. To get that result, you’d need to follow a whole process of grooming the ball and shaping it. The process would take a good while, but you know it’s going to be worth it at the end.
Well, we also believe that that’s the thing with ideas. They start off ugly, messy, with bumps all around. But it takes a lot of work from all of us to believe in the end project and work towards it. Eventually, the ball is clear, and we start using it. So is any vision for a new project.
Turning apples into oranges. About two years ago, we were having dinner as a team, and we were trying to replace a certain strategy with a very similar one. We were only changing a few elements, but it was like replacing a rotten apple with a freshly picked one in an orchard. Well, that wasn’t sustainable for business continuity. Until one team member said,
“why replace an apple with an apple, when we can change the whole concept with a new one by introducing an orange?”
That’s when we started assessing projects by either amending an existing one without replacing it. Or we would decide to change our path to a new concept by applying an orange. This helps us a lot in challenging what we currently know with the possibilities and potentials of a new strategy.
So, why am I sharing this? When going through our team pictures today, I realized that what keeps us together, challenges us, grooms us, and sustains us is this shared culture of aiming for our fullest potentials (even if we don’t realize that at some points).
We are all different individuals, with different stories, paths, and goals. Yet we all met here with the belief that we can make a difference through our work. All those pictures and videos are a reflection of this shared spirit between us all that believes that an effective strategy takes a whole team committed to realizing the Vision. It’s in our culture to be more, give more, and do more.
It’s why I’m writing this blog at 12 am and dedicating to you all. Because this journey of biking, ball making, and orange creating wouldn’t be this impactful without you all believing in it.
They say culture eats strategy for breakfast. We say that strategy works because of a team that’s so passionate and driven, shares one culture, and driven by a vision to leave a positive impact through all projects we do.
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