In preparing to rule in the recent two week trial that ended between online auction titan eBay and classified ad giant Craigslist, the presiding judge reportedly noted that any ruling he would make would not be a “grand slam home run” for either side. 

“I have an uncanny ability to make everyone unhappy,” he said as he was encouraging the parties to reach a mutually acceptable settlement on their own.  If they waited for his ruling, in what turned out to be largely a clash of corporate cultures, it would be “the second best way to do it,” he said.

Touché.

The next time around, a little more due diligence up front would help too, because how you conduct business is just as important as what business is conducted.  The expectations embodied in corporate culture can make a huge difference between the success and failure of a deal.

Safety advocates who favor outlawing multitasking behind the wheel say the new generation of back-seat hawks may be playing a crucial role in changing the culture – much as they did in helping enforce seat belt laws – in a way these advocates say laws alone may not be able to.

 “Driver Texting Now an Issue in the Back Seat,” NY Times, Sept. 9, 2009

Yes, multitasking while driving can be dangerous to your health and to those around you.  We’ve probably all been frustrated while stuck behind a driver whose reaction time was slowed because they were texting or yapping away obliviously on the phone. 

But what I love about this quote is more than how it echos some of my earlier posts about the dangers of multitasking behind the wheel.  I’m particularly smitten by the observation about the role of the backseat drivers and how they’re changing the culture in a way that the laws by themselves can’t. 

It’s a concept that is transferable to the business setting and helps explain why some business policies don’t work.  Afterall, a corporate culture is more than the sum total of an organization’s business policies, guidelines, and directives.  It also includes the white space on the organization chart.

In my humble opinion it’s the white space that reflects the enterprise’s true actions and values.  Your policy, for example, may say that there’s an open door policy for complaints.  But, if in reality anyone walking through that door is met with suspicion (“You know they really didn’t mean that racial slur, they were just kidding”) to outright denial (“No, that’s not the way it is around here”) it won’t take long for employees to realize that the door is really more ajar than tell-me-what-you’re-really-thinking wide open.  They enter at their own risk.

Actions are what give the words effect.  Actions help us interprete words.  They tell us what’s truly expected and whether you really mean what you say.  It clues us in on how seriously to take the words.  As a result, actions can either give the words force and effect, or they can undermine them. 

Consider the role of culture the next time you revise your business policies.  If you want effective policies, you need to make sure the white space on the org chart is in synch with the black and white in your policy manual.  Actions really do speak louder than words.

© 2009 Corporate M.O., LLC

Actions speak louder than words.  Yet how many business leaders try to change corporate culture with policy pronouncements and mission statements while conducting business as usual?

I was reminded of that old adage today when I read Office Culture Can Determine Firm’s Success.  The story is about a two Philadelphia-based law firms who realized some years ago that increased competition and declining fee structures would negatively affect long term growth in their practice specialty.  If they wanted to keep their income levels high they needed to diversify their practice with lateral hires that could bring with them a profitable book of business.  Unfortunately, the entrenched habits that defined the firms’ culture sabotaged multiple attempts at diversification. 

Change was given lip service.  It was not genuinely embraced.

If business leaders aren’t careful, legal risk management can suffer a similar fate.  Employees will follow leadership’s cue. What gets rewarded gets done. That means if meeting a quarterly target at any cost gets kudos, then compliance will take a back seat. 

Businesses serious about doing the right thing need to step back periodically and evaluate whether they are sending mixed messages to their employees that keep firms from being as successful as they can be.  This is especially important for small and medium sized companies who may feel they’re not big enough for ”legal reviews.”  While their legal needs may be modest in comparison to their larger counterparts, their needs will grow as their business does.  Periodically checking the legal pulse will help keep bad habits from getting too entrenched and more difficult to change later on when the stakes are higher.