Above the Line

How to Create a Company Culture That Engages Employees, Delights Customers and Delivers Results

Wiley, 2014

15 min read

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“Culture eats strategy for breakfast, lunch, dinner, morning tea, afternoon tea and as a midnight snack.”

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Culture drives everything, and it evolves naturally, but doesn’t have to be random. You can shape your organization’s culture deliberately with the process of “culturing,” and then tend to it carefully. Many leaders ignore culture’s power and instead post meaningless mission statements or issue platitudes about values. Michael Henderson, a corporate anthropologist, applies his considerable experience within organizations to the question of culture. He describes levels of cultures from “dead” and “dying” to “successful” and imbued with excellence. He shows readers how to identify these levels and how to help their organizational culture evolve. Henderson’s guide contains many nuggets of wisdom and excellent advice, though the read can be slow and some sweeping statements would benefit from additional sourcing. getAbstract recommends Henderson’s insight and guidance to leaders across all industries and to all sizes and kinds of companies, including nonprofits.

Summary

Don’t Take Culture for Granted

Culture forms naturally within groups of people without deliberate action on anyone’s part. Yet as a corporate leader, you don’t want to let culture just happen at random. Instead, you can use “culturing” to plan and execute a vision for the right culture for your organization, just as you would plan any other strategy. Culture is your de facto organizational environment – its “process of social interaction.” Culture isn’t how people do things; it’s the reason why. Powerful culture compels people to surrender their self-interest to the organization’s collective mission or purpose.

The deliberate managerial work of culturing acknowledges and addresses various, related aspects of culture that are “mutable, complex, journeying, evolving and perpetually expanding or shrinking.” View your culture from the perspective of your employees, customers and other stakeholders. They can honor your organization’s culture, reject it, or accept your culturing initiatives, changes of command and fresh strategy – depending on their notions of your culture and the values and beliefs they share with it. If, for example, your culture goes against the reasons...

About the Author

Cultural anthropologist Michael Henderson studies corporate cultures just as social scientists study tribal cultures. Henderson has written several books about this specialty.

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T. G. 9 years ago

On my door in my office is a sign that states "ABOVE THE LINE"-we are branding above the line culture and have been doing so for many years. It does promote better leaders, a better environment and a better culture.
M. S. 9 years ago

Summary reminds me that I need to ensure I am hiring the right people for the mission of my organization and department..... I like how the author describes each culture and see elements of each in places I have worked.
A. M. 9 years ago

Sometimes we forget how important cutlure is to achieving our goals. In order for an organization to be successful, it needs to insure that its culture is aligned with its strategy. This summary gives good ideas on how to ensure that happens.

Michael Henderson