Organizational and group cultures are dependent on many factors.  Things like what is the organization trying to achieve , what things are most important – i.e., clients, profit, team members satisfaction and so on.

Typically the organizations leadership set the direction, influence and impact how the group works together.  Basically this lays the foundation for how the culture develops over time.

Meeting the Organizational Goals

When managing by objectives, the intent is to achieve defined and measurable goals.  In that case, the key method of determining if the culture is effective lies in monitoring of goal achievement.

This is most effective when done continuously enabling identification and remedying of the root cause of issues ongoing.  In this model there is no right or wrong culture , only effective ones.

We’ll figure it out

Consider a culture where the focus is on, respectful conversations, where everyone’s opinion matters, anyone can affect any decision and the overriding  approach is “we’ll figure it out”.

Sounds a bit too anarchistic for most organizations (whether Corporate, Non-profit or Government).  Surprisingly the results produced from such a culture can be of a high quality.

That being said though this type of culture is hard to work in and requires strong leadership to ensure results are achieved.  In fact, this type of culture demands strong leadership to work.

It is key though for leadership to be mindful of the manage by objective concept (i.e., results) and keep their eye on this ball.