“Group culture is one of the most powerful forces on the planet.”
- The Culture Code, page xvii
"These three skills work together from the bottom up, first building group connection and then channeling it into action."- The Culture Code, page xijx
The book is divided into 3 sections describing the 3 key skills to creating a strong culture:
"The main challenge to building a clear sense of purpose is that he world is cluttered with noise, distractions, and endless alternative purposes."- The Culture Code, page 232
Let’s start with why (as Simon Sinek teaches us) and focus on purpose. In the pharma industry we are on a movement to being purpose (or patient) driven. Every company has this patient centricity in their vision and mission now. But, so what?
One solution is to measure what matters (part of establishing purpose). A great example comes from the early days of Zappos. Tony Hsieh is famous for creating a culture of delivering happiness (not shoes). He noticed that call centre workers were being measured by the standard number of calls per hour and realized that this was at odds with their purpose to deliver happiness. It was driving unwanted behaviors like haste and brevity. He banished that measurement and replaced it with Personal Emotional Connections (PECs). What did this mean? Creating a bond outside the conversation about the product.
But that’s much harder and less precise than simply counting number of calls, you might counter. Indeed, it is, but precision is not the goal, creating awareness of and alignment with their purpose and directing their behavior toward their mission is the goal.
Translating this back to pharma: One can predict that the most successful companies will have a culture of “delivering health” (not drugs). Company reps will be measured not on number of calls to doctors but rather on Patient-focused Connection (PFCs). This would create a bond around the best interest of the patient.
"How can a handful of simple, forthright sentences make such a difference in a group’s behavior."- The Culture Code, page 177
You likely remember (or heard about) the Tylenol scare in 1982. In Chicago, 6 people died from ingesting Tylenol laced with cyanide. Panic ensued. Police roamed the streets using bullhorns to warn people, Boy Scouts went door to door. The Tylenol poisonings generated the widest U.S. news coverage since the Kennedy assassination.
At J&J headquarters, an office was converted into a makeshift war room where they taped the details up on the walls as information came in – victims, locations, lot numbers of the pills, location of purchase. What to do? Urgent questions with no answers were everywhere. The only certainty was that Tylenol was finished. But why, then, does every person reading this, have a bottle of Tylenol in their medicine cabinet?
So, let’s fill in the middle. This story begins 7 years earlier when their president, James Burke, summoned 35 senior managers to discuss their Credo, written 32 years earlier. The Credo begins “We believe our first responsibility is to doctors, nurses and patients; to mothers and fathers and all others who use our products and services.” And continues for 311 words describing priorities to first customers, then employees, then community and finally stockholders.
The problem, as Burke saw it, was that the Credo didn’t seem to matter to employees and he questioned if it was still relevant. Many felt it was merely a PR gimmick. Burke wanted to determine the role of the Credo in the company’s future. Debates ensued. “I think the Credo should be absolute,” said one manager. “Don’t kid yourself,” said another, “the purpose of the business is to make a profit.” And so on.
By the end of the process, they reached a consensus. They would recommit to the existing Credo. As a first step, Burke recreated these conversations at all levels in the organization. And it seemed to work. A fresh awareness was created. Did it lead to performance changes?
Fast forward 7 years to the war room described above. What should they tell the public? What should they do with Tylenol products on the shelves around the nation? The FBI and FDA strongly recommended they limit the recall to Chicago. The team thought about it, then ignored the advice. They ordered an immediate, national recall of every Tylenol product – at a cost of $100 million. When asked “Why?”, what do you think they said? “We believe our first responsibility is to doctors, nurses and patients; to mothers and fathers and all others who use our products and services.” The words of the Credo led their actions.
Over the next few weeks, they transformed themselves into a public safety organization. They publicly expressed regret and grief and shared the steps they were taking to ensure safety. Six weeks later, they introduced new tamper-proof packaging. And then, something unexpected happened. Their market share, after dropping to zero after the attacks, began to slowly climb back and surpass previous levels.
Thousands of decisions needed to be made by J&J people to lead to the positive outcome. Each of those decisions resulted from their strong culture that created employees whose hearts and minds were focused on serving the patients first.
Successful cultures don’t just descend from above, they are skillfully created in never-ending, intentional efforts. What culture do you want and what steps will you take to create it?
Daniel Coyle is the New York Times bestselling author of The Little Book of Talent, The Talent Code, Lance Armstrong’s War, and Hardball: A Season in Projects. A contributing editor for Outside Magazine, he is a two-time National Magazine Award finalist. Coyle lives in Cleveland, Ohio during the school year and in Homer, Alaska, during the summer with his wife Jen, and their four children.
