Why culture and community go hand in hand

01 May Why culture and community go hand in hand

We’re supposedly in the middle of a culture war being fought on the field of social media and the body politic between what is deemed to be ‘woke’ or not.

Meanwhile in business the buzz talk is trained on developing a ‘good’ culture within an organisation which, to me, seems to overlook the most obvious impact of culture which is the way an organisation connects with the outside world.

Culture and community should go hand in hand. A business, after all, is just a community in a commercial setting.

While it’s great to engender feelings of motivation and positivity among employees, what really counts is how that transmits to the community the business seeks to serve.

It’s fine to set goals, create plans and devise mission statements but without including a relationship to the outside world there’s only one community a business is kidding – itself.

Cultures grow organically. They can be shaped, moulded, clipped, tweaked, and trimmed through cultivation – or be left unkempt to grow wild.

Taking your eye of the ball by failing to care for your culture can come at a hefty cost even for organisations that at one time or another seemed to crack the code by becoming more than mere businesses but a meaningful community institution people bought into en masse.

That’s because culture is a continuum. It’s never finally won or lost but an endless battle in win, sometimes of wills (hence the culture war around ‘woke’) but cultural values and connection with communities.

Let’s look at a case in point.

Few things matter more in Britain than football – the national game.

Manchester United probably have the biggest fan base of any club in the world, a reputation that began in the post war years with the so-called Busby Babes (home-grown players moulded into a winning team by manager Sir Matt Busby) and built upon in the swinging 60s with superstars like Denis Law, Bobby Charlton and in particular the iconic George Best, culminating in United winning the European Cup in 1968 which cemented the massive fan base the club has enjoyed since.

Then came stagnation. For 25 years between 1968 and 1993 United failed to win the erstwhile Football League Division One (today’s Premier League). Not quite the status of the world’s supposed biggest club.

This wasn’t because of lack of investment in players, managers, or coaching staff. United desperately tried to buy success by splashing out huge transfer fees on the best talent around with mixed results.

Sure, there were other trophies along the way, but without winning the holy grail of the Football League title, entry back into the European Cup was impossible.

Then they changed tack. Under Sir Alex Ferguson the club stopped simply trying to buy success but reconnected with the DNA that had first made them special and unique.

That ingredient was youth development – home grown players schooled in the club’s ethos and preferred pattern of play – core values that included fighting until the very end (‘Man Utd will never die’), teamwork – ‘the ball is round so we pass it around’, and the problem solving concept of the maze – the fun is learning how to find your way out, not someone doing it for you.

United’s backroom staff remained the backbone too providing much needed continuity. Soon the superstars recruited from outside blended with cohorts of home-grown talent, starting with the ‘Class of 92’ – led by Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes, Nicky Butt, the Neville brothers, Phil and Gary and, of course, Goldenballs himself, David Beckham, through to modern players such as Marcus Rashford.

Along the way, Manchester United’s young charges are taught a bigger picture – that being a good footballer is only one part of their development. Teenage players are taken to poor countries around the world to see how others live and to the mean streets of Salford where the club is based to do support work with the Salvation Army and other community organisations. It is part of their growing up whether they make it or not.

Meanwhile, the trophies multiplied – including several Premier League titles and two European Champions League trophies – which came to a shuddering halt in 2013 when Sir Alex Ferguson retired.

Since then, the club has so far had ten years of hurt – and its DNA has changed. Owned by the American Glazer family who have failed to match the investment made in rival clubs, its academy is no longer the finest or best funded in British football. The old cylindrical pattern of trying to buy success has returned.

But the depth of fan base remains, fortified by the story of Man Utd being a family of-sorts, a community they are somehow part of – one of home-grown players, fatherly figures like Busby and Ferguson and the belief that Man Utd will never die.

Community is where it’s at. Any business that focuses purely on itself and not the community it serves is missing a trick.

Psst, sometimes these people are called customers – and they ‘buy into’ you for so much more than the cheapest price or goods on offer – they buy into your story and the culture you create.

Culture – Ways to build caring sharing communities is the theme of our online CGM Business Media Club meeting on Friday, May 26 (10am-midday).

For further information and to book your seat visit our Business Media Club webpage.