Building Cultural Confidence

“Teams that are immersed in a culture of accountability, collaboration, and initiative are more likely to believe that they can weather any storm.”

In her HBR article “Cultivate a Culture of Confidence,” Harvard Business School Professor Rosabeth Moss Kanter, who specializes in strategy, innovation, and leadership, provides some analysis of the differences between #winners and losers and how each handles losing. She identifies organizational parallels, sharing some great insights into how teams that foster a culture of learning from their mistakes – rather than dealing out punishment – are not only more innovative, but maintain happier and healthier environments overall.

No duh, right? And yet far too many companies do the opposite, punishing employees for their mistakes rather than allowing the individual – and the company – to learn from the setback. I remember reading somewhere about a venture capitalist who specifically looked for investment opportunities not where everything seemed to go perfectly for the founders, but where the founders had experienced huge setbacks – but had overcome those obstacles and flourished. Those founders who faced their failures and worked to turn things around were the management teams he wanted to invest in.

Ms. Kanter outlines some of the key cultural differences in organizations that seek to learn from their mistakes:

• They rehearse through practice and preparation
• They remain disciplined and professional
• Their leaders put facts on the table, reviewing what goes right or what goes wrong, in order to identify strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities
• They stress collaboration and teamwork, common goals, and commitment to a shared vision
• They encourage support for team members, and cultures where others can step in and pick up the ball, if needed
• They offer mentoring programs, so that the best employees have opportunities to lift their teammates 
• They constantly seek creative ideas for improvement and innovation, favoring widespread dialog and brainstorming

Building cultural confidence is not about seeding your organization with star employees who go above and beyond (although its great to have many of them), but about building a framework where people can lead, each in their own way, and utilize their own strengths. And its about being able to learn from your mistakes, growing into your role, and improving.