Corporate Culture: More Powerful Than a Locomotive

Is the Kathy Schaeffer and Associates, Inc.  culture actually so strong that you can feel it the moment you walk into the room? Possibly.

A couple of uncomfortable (some might say painful) incidents recently tested our corporate culture and the company core values that underpin it.

Culture prevailed. And, while experiencing these situations was far from sweetness and light, we learned significant life lessons and our team is stronger for it.

Chief among those lessons: The two percent of the time we don’t play well with others is a critical measure of the success of our culture. It is a reflection of the strength of our core values during the 98 percent of the time we do play well with others and achieve public relations success for our clients.

Our clients often tell us they love working with us and appreciate our collaboration, enthusiasm and accountability. We are fanatical about catapulting our creative ideas to victory by launching them with timelines and game plans. Sometimes, we are control freaks.

It is our collective recipe for success. But others don’t always appreciate that.

Initially, I was chagrined about this, but then I recalled what Jim Collins wrote about the strength of cultures – that sometimes a well-developed culture expels or repels others who don’t fit that culture – and I was overcome with gratitude and respect for the KSA team and the fiber of our culture.

In his pivotal book, “Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap… and Others Don’t,” Collins wrote:  “It is not the content of a company’s values that correlates with performance, but the strength of conviction with which it holds those values, whatever they might be.”

I’ve known for some time that my colleagues are able to leap tall buildings in a single bound and are faster than a speeding bullet. Now – through mettle-testing events it’s clear through the culture we’ve all built that my colleagues also are more powerful than a locomotive.

-   Kathy Schaeffer