jen briggs

Several years ago at an always transformational Worldblu conference, I was inspired by a fantastic person, Sam Chaltain. Sam is a thinker and creator who instigates transformational principals in education systems. During Sam’s speech, he likened designing a business system, strategy, or plan to a community drawn work of art. Leaders draw the outline or contours, but then they must know how and when to lean out and pass the creation to others. This metaphor of art to corporate culture seemed to be a perfect fit for the work that we were doing at New Belgium Brewing in our high involvement culture. Creation of great beer, a great brand, and a great culture was an integrated act of creation using the many talents of the people.

Each year we conducted an all-staff retreat, and all of the employees would come and be a part of learning, connecting, contributing, and, of course, having fun. Sam joined us as a keynote speaker with his messaging on the power of learning. The evening before his talk our leadership team and Sam joined for dinner and a provocative table debate. The conversation was about the essence of a great culture. Sam made the critical point about a learning organization. If we aren’t learning, we aren’t growing. There is an important distinction between training and learning. Learning is a growing process inspired by awe, wonder, and inspiration. One of my colleagues posed his belief that love is the essence of a great culture. His point was that without love for each other, we are not then inspired toward growth. Love, especially in the existential, spiritual sense, creates our will toward our passion and dedication of goodwill for our world fellowship of humanity. It was a fascinating discussion, and I couldn’t land firmly on either side. However, it was memorable and moving and helped affirm my attitude on the integration of corporate performance and human capability.

Executing on the essence of love and learning.

I would agree with both Sam and my colleague that love and learning are the essence of a great culture. Talking philosophically is intriguing, but then, we have to take philosophy to action.

Love. We do not experience love in a collective context, or we might experience a version of love that is dysfunctional. So, taking the idea of love through an organization is very challenging. In highly masculine environments, the concept of love is outright rejected. In highly nurturing corporate environments, love can inadvertently become parental. Neither manifestation creates an optimally productive, creative, or value-driven environment. (Note: in this sense, masculine and nurturing orient toward traits that should not be stereotyped toward gender).

When we were small we were able to rely on artifacts, community-building, and ceremony, and these would continue to be of utmost importance. However, as the company grew in complexity and with rapid hiring, there was always the risk of dilution of culture that needed to be met with a concentration of effort. To bring love through the company with a high remote-worker ratio, we tried to make it real every day. Rather than a corporate newsletter, we sent LOVE letters – Living Our Values Every day. These were stories about how action created great numbers and how these were lived experiences of our values. By connecting lived experiences to philosophies and values, we could unify our norms as a national company. We also partnered with HAP, Human Accelerated Performance, to build the collective social-emotional intelligence and found this method much more effective than relying on preaching the more enigmatic and mercurial concept of love.

Learning. We were able to rely on the wealth of research on the difference between fixed and growth mindsets. This is a performance trait that can and should be included in the interview process when hiring new employees. Even if a business can hire a majority of people with growth mindsets, it must then demonstrate the value of learning through the prioritization of time. At our all-staff retreat, Sam took our people through discussion groups where each person described a time where they learned something very valuable or went through a rapid growth phase. I don’t recall anyone listing a training or workshop as one of their core growth events. Some people pointed to a professor or other mentor who opened their mind to a new way of seeing or believing. The bottom line for nearly all of the discussions was that growth came from experience.

Making it real.

In the love and learning aspects of a premier corporate culture, it will come down to creating space for experiences to naturally emerge and curating specific events with intention and purpose.

Books. Blogs, and podcasts. Consider a book club. Ask people to write a review for their coworkers. Build book-club discussions for key reads where people get to debate the premise of the message and what might it mean for the business. Don’t just read, discuss.

Workshops, classes, seminars. Don’t just ask people to attend. Ask people to teach back what they learned to a group. Teaching back within two weeks of attendance is one of the best ways to embed the information into memory. Create an exploration question, answer, debate exercise for attendees.

Create space for experience. When creating space, it must be safe from bias and trolling and allow for failure. For example, building managers who can use Socratic styles that emphasize problem-solving with people rather than problem-solving for people. Consider events for planning and dialog that are future-focused to lift peoples minds to a new horizon. Teaching financial literacy is great, but experiencing real examples of the successes and failures in a company develops business literacy.

Use specialists as coaches, not tools. As businesses grow, they will need to increase specialization. Companies need people with high capability in their expertise or trade. This is one of the more dangerous phases in culture building. Specialization can separate. Specialization can create real or perceived ego and status. Do not let this create silos. Invite specialized experts to cross-team discussions. Encourage open communication and build communication paths to specialists – create a community hunger for cross-reliance, curiosity, and inquiry. For example, one company I work with regards themselves as contributors to an organizational brain that solves problems for customers. A customer of this company doesn’t just get the knowledge of their project manager or team; they get access to the wisdom of the entire enterprise. Specialization can increase the capacity of the organization as a whole if managed with abundance.

Time and space is the most important ingredient to develop the essence.Whether it be love or learning, there must be time and space that allow them to flourish. A workshop or a book might open a mind or instigate new thinking, but it doesn’t make it spread. Agendas that are too efficient, > 90% human productivity scheduling, and the constant 24-hour of churn of e-mail response expectations are the enemy of growth. Don’t let your business get caught in the hamster wheel of busy. Make space each week for growth to happen.

If you love your company, love what it stands for, love its potential, love your brand, product and service, and yes, love your coworkers. If you do this, you will make sure there is room for growth. The value of a company will be limited by the capability of leadership, and the capability of leadership cannot expand without love and learning by all people.

Most companies can replicate a business plan of its competitors, but no company can reproduce the culture of another company. Culture creates value by distinguishing the brand, products, and services from its competition. Don’t paint by number. Don’t settle for a single creative style from a small group. All people can create value when leadership ushers the effort toward purpose, mission, and values. Use love and learning as the essence for business distinction and create a beautiful work of corporate art together.