Jo Phillips: The importance of culture

So what is Culture?

Culture’s what we feel and see around us. It can be difficult to describe but it’s there in our behaviours, where we work and how we approach things like celebration and decision making. It’s evident in how we come together (currently virtually!), how we create solutions, the trust & openness we build and the ambition we share as colleagues. Mindsets, motivations and unspoken assumptions make up less visible but powerful aspects of our culture; ultimately it defines what we encourage, discourage, accept or reject. I like to think of it as ‘what goes on around here…when no-one’s looking!’

…..and why does it matter

It matters because it’s important to you.  We know that people increasingly look to work for an organisation whose purpose has meaning to them and whose culture aligns with their values.  They often leave companies when they don’t.  Culture is at the heart of our employee experience and how we get, grow and keep incredible people to continue to deliver Unforgettable Holiday Happiness for our Guests.

It’s also a vital partner to strategy in shaping a company’s performance, or at least that’s normally the case in businesses that are successful.  It’s notably the thing that can undo a well defined strategy, if not considered and actively worked on in at least equal measure.  Where a company’s cultural ambition is understood, bought into and brought to life by its people, it has a direct positive impact on employee performance (can increase by up to 22%), revenue (up to 9%) and perception of employer & consumer brands (up to 16%).

Southwest Airlines, one of the largest airlines in the US, are a great example of how genuine focus on culture can pay off. Their philosophy is about having a warrior spirit, servant’s heart and Funloving attitude. These are more than commitments posted on the company website, people are empowered to live them every day. As a result, they have the highest customer satisfaction scores of all US airlines and have a staggeringly low employee turnover rate of 4%.

So, Culture really matters to the future of our business and it needs us all to be playing an active role in shaping it.  We’ll keep talking about and working together on our culture essentials until they become second nature.  Sometimes we’ll get it right and sometimes we won’t; the important thing is that we grab this with intent and learn and improve along the way. We’ll share stories and examples as we go, so that we understand what’s expected of us and the role we each play in creating a culture we’re proud of.

Tabloid Demise

Anyone remember the News of the World?! At one point it was the best selling English language newspaper in the world and traded for 168 years, almost as long as P&O Cruises and Cunard. Its success hinged on scandal and celebrity scoops. At the turn of the millennium, leadership in the tabloid industry created immense pressure to find the most sensationalist stories; a strategy aimed at discouraging readers from switching to online alternatives. Research into their culture at the time outlines a particular practice that was introduced where mind-numbing work was given to those who hadn’t had a headline recently, as a form of humiliation and to trigger them to ‘do better’. As a result, people got ‘creative’ and the phone hacking scandal was born. Employees hacked the phones of celebrities, members of the Royal Family and even a murdered child to get the best headlines; all because they believed this was expected of them within that environment and it’s what they had to do to ‘get on’ around here. This scandal ultimately led to the closure of the News of the World in 2011.

 

The cost of not listening in Dutch Home Care

Buurtzorg is an inspirational home-care business in The Netherlands that has grown exponentially over the last 14 years. They repeatedly top their sector for Guest satisfaction and employee engagement is high. The reason for sharing this story is that Buurtzorg was founded by a guy who was disengaged with the Culture and leadership at the business he worked for at the time. He and others in the business felt passionately that the organisation could be more successful by being more patient centric but, despite being closest to the patients, their input fell repeatedly on deaf ears. Buutzorg’s founder felt their way of working got in the way of delivering proper healthcare, due to too much bureaucracy and too little autonomy for care givers (who arguably understood patients needs best). So he set up a different model independently via Buurtzorg, a business far more successful than the one he worked for previously. Now there’s a lesson around empowerment and listening.

Closer to home…

There are also some brilliant every day examples within our business of people actively ensuring that we’re moving in the right direction and living our Culture Essentials….

During a recent maintenance task on Arcadia one of our Deck colleagues was concerned that balcony glass was being installed and left without the handrails, risking it falling out and onto the deck below. He spoke up and discussed his concern with the team to ensure that the task was conducted safely. Had he not done that the story could be very different.

I know that you’re unlikely to directly relate to phone hacking or patient care in your day job!  What I hope we can all relate to is how culture begins with the small actions we take every day.  Also that our Culture needs intention and to be actively worked on by all of us; it’s not the sole domain of leadership and it certainly can’t be left to luck.

Our culture is made up of 1000’s of decisions and actions that take place by every one of us each day, so cultivating the culture we aspire to needs us all to be deliberate about how we do things and to be open to change in ourselves.  

We’re really proud of the CUK culture and all the work that we’ve collectively put into making this a great place to work. It’s really shone through as we’ve faced the uncertainty and challenges through 2020. There is a definite ‘but’ though….. as Simon outlined in his recent video, we know we need to face into some uncomfortable truths and continue to focus on making things better for each other. Over time, behaviours or situations we once found shocking have become more the norm and we need to act to change that.

A CUK where our Culture Essentials are lived and breathed more consistently every day will be a fantastic place to be; it’ll feel more inclusive and more empowering for all of us.  It’s on each of us to do our bit to nurture our culture, through our own individual behaviours but, as importantly, by being activists and speaking up when we see or hear behaviour that doesn’t support what we’re trying to achieve. Thanks in advance for the role you’ll play in getting there.

Jo Phillips,
Chief People Officer, Carnival UK

We’ll share more in the coming weeks about how you can get involved in culture conversations in your team or as part of our ambassador programme. Click here for more information on our Culture Essentials.