The DNA of a company October 10, 2006
I was working with a company that was having some morale problems. The management called a meeting to let everyone know about the long term plans for the company. Prior to the meeting, the stories told by employees was that the company was being restructured to sell off. During the meeting, the lead manager (not CEO) of the meeting made comment, “There is no big secret. The changes we have gone through are not just to cut costs, but to also to make the company meaner in the marketplace.”
Sitting at the table, one of the employees actually snorted in disgust. A few others rolled their eyes. This was a clear example of the employee stories having more power than one comment from management. It would have been more effective (assuming the manager didn’t want to give more proof to the established story) if the manager told his own. Something that took the established story and changed it. Something like; “We thought seriously about selling the company, but in the end we realised that would take too much time, effort and money. Instead we decided to not just cut costs, but also make the company meaner in the marketplace.”
The DNA that is the blueprint of your body is contained within every cell. This blueprint holds your genetic heritage, and defines how your cells will develop, the way they will look, and their performance.
Stories are the DNA of a company. The stories that are told from one person to another define where the company is heading, what the culture is, how individual employees know how to respond to a situation. Handed down from the old hands to the new joiners. Think about the company DNA of Google, Apple and IBM. What is their story? Can you imagine the different stories that are told around the water cooler by employees?
How do these stories define their results? How do you know about the different stories from these two companies? Is there a difference between the stories that management tell, and the stories that employees tell?
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