Understanding and navigating company culture is an important skill to develop as a project manager in order to work collaboratively with your team and with management. You may be great at putting together project plans, running efficient stand-ups, and facilitating team meetings, but if you are not able to adapt to the company culture early on and be accepted by your team, then it's difficult to gain credibility, respect, and traction to get things accomplished.
Sometimes, you may feel like a victim in a finger pointing culture. Rather than playing the victim and not getting things done because you feel you work in a dysfunctional or toxic culture, establish yourself as someone who can quickly get up to speed without much direction or guidance. Be independent.
Don’t push processes on the team in the name of best practices. That may not go over well. Be open to suggestions and ideas of what works well in that organization and what team members want to see changed. They are your true sounding board. The important thing to remember is that you are there to get things moving, together with the team, in a forward direction; it is your responsibility to complete projects on time and on budget with minimal interruptions, noise, and disruptions outside the team.
I’ve worked in different company environments, ranging from start-up e-commerce companies to large telecom companies and large retail e-commerce companies, and they all have one thing in common: their culture changes over time.
The culture that you adapt to on the first day on the client site will change, and so will the company's people and management. Stay focused on basic project management principles, and always exhibit a positive, can-do attitude, listening carefully and understanding ideas others are trying to convey to you. Be open to criticism, own the issues, and do your best to ensure that people stay positive and are having fun doing their jobs.
Be the social coordinator. Inject fun into the project team by keeping things light and simple. As an example, I brought in Nerf toys, which people initially thought was a little strange, but then they got used to shooting hoops outside their cubes. I’ve also brought in many treats, such as chips, candies, and cookies to a common area. If you can develop a reputation as someone who is easy to work with, a thought partner, a team player, and a reliable resource to get things accomplished in any role assignments while making things fun as a project manager, program manager, or scrum master, your position will be solidified in the company culture.
This poetic quotation from Bruce Lee speaks to the resourcefulness needed to succeed in different types of environments.
Image courtesy of KeepInspiring.Me
There are many phases and flavors of company culture that exist in an organization and even within various departments of the same organization. As I mentioned earlier, company cultures are dynamic and change (dramatically or subtly) over time. Below I've described an example of this growth and broken it down into three phases based on my experience of working with a retail e-commerce company over an 8-year period.
(My experience at this company was not isolated--I have encountered the same cycle at another e-commerce company, where I was part of both the "Prosperity/Startup Phase" and, after approximately 7 years, a transition into the "Reset/Transitional Phase," which eventually grew into the "Opportunity/Mature Phase.")
When I joined, the company was pursuing big plans for expansion and enhancement. There was a sense of urgency and momentum typical of a startup environment. From my very first day with this company, I felt a sense of ownership and camaraderie within the team. The culture was defined by people who were motivated, energized, positive, and cordial to one another. Management emphasized that there was no place to blame or fault others, and it was great to see people dedicated and willing to take on risks and to appreciate differing viewpoints. There were social gatherings held outside the workplace after hours, which formed a basis of trust and friendship and enabled a collaborative culture.
Over the course of approximately 7 years, however, the culture changed, and so did its people. From my perspective, the culture seemed to change from a startup to a slower growth, “mature” company where revenue growth was not accelerating as fast. This is what I call the Reset Phase.
The Reset is a subtle, transitional phase, which in my experience takes place over the course of a year where there are budgeting and departmental reorganizations.
As the initial management team begins to leave the organization to pursue other opportunities, new leadership takes over and focuses on the fiscal discipline and operational expenses of the company, accelerating the reset.
The new leadership looks at ways to re-invent their business model to boost revenue growth while at the same time managing shrinking capital and expense budgets. That is when the culture starts changing, and people need to adapt to the direction set by the new leadership team. As the company shifts towards developing a strategy to revive the business, restructuring departments and the churn of people leaving (which can be good or bad) becomes prevalent throughout the organization, and hence moral may suffer.
As the frequency of the restructuring and churn increases, there are several opportunities for you to take advantage of this phase, where alignment to the new business strategy allows you to make a difference and stand out during the transition.
This is what I call the Opportunity Phase, since introducing ways to cut costs and implement process efficiencies to help stabilize churn will be what sets you apart. For example:
Culture change will occur. The biggest takeaways are to always stick to the basics, to go the extra yard in picking up more projects, and to make sure you have confidence in your ability to execute and stay focused.