The Trickle-Down Effect Theory
What is culture in organizations and how to sustain it?
The art of people management is one of the greatest skills any human can possess. By people “management” I mean having and developing your EQ in ways that help you navigate through effective communication and conflict management with others. Knowing people, understanding their quirks, listening to their stories, empathizing with their lives, identifying their emotions, and having the ability to communicate effectively to respect those emotions while keeping yours in place — are a sign of a decent functional EQ.
I have headed HR for more than 12 years of my prime years, through which I have come across thousands of people from different industries, backgrounds, age brackets, and walks of life. As rightly said ‘Only with experience comes wisdom’, similarly, I learned a thing or two about people over the years. Not to give you an expansive list but the single most important quality that we tend to forget about humans is that “we are all the same”. We each have our compasses, belief systems, and identities that create differences within us, but at the heart of it — what another person ‘feels’ is what you ‘feel’ too. It might sound like something so simple, yet, it is profound when you consciously acknowledge this aspect.
The Trickle-Down Effect Theory is my assimilation of working with multiple Founders & CEOs and what drives a healthy, positive culture within an organization. Deciding what culture is, becomes the most imperative question to ask while building teams ground up.
What is culture?
- Creating one common eco-system of values
- Behavior expectation-setting across all levels of the organization
- Ground rules for zero tolerance policies
- Listing morale triggers — the ups and downs
- Processes to imbibe and drive cultural goals — determining how one drives these goals
- Identifying if your organization values skill over attitude or attitude over skill, and setting policies to follow for any similar future contingencies
- Is your organization a ROWE? Or the need to be more in control?
Culture is the pulse of the organization that can be assessed by coherent teamwork amidst same and cross-functional teams. It is the intangible glue that ascertains positive vibes within teammates. It is the single biggest yardstick for determining if an organization is heading toward a great journey or a failed one.
How does one sustain a positive culture?
- Consistent yardsticks for assessing the pulse of the organization
- Regular anonymous surveys on what makes teammates unhappy and the means to make adequate changes when loopholes are identified
- Eradication of toxic talk and recurring negative feedback loopholes — you have to nip toxicity in the bud
- Constant checks on groupism, classism, sexism, and all the ‘isms’
- A fantastic POSH committee
- Ensuring Diversity and Inclusion — all the way
- Feel-good/meaningful activities throughout the year; with an in-house counsellor to help tackle personal problems of teammates
- Transparent hiring and firing policies
- A sense of belonging that can ONLY be imbibed by team leads being empathetic towards their team
- Constant training for team leads on EQ, Conflict Management, Personality Development, and Developing Leadership Styles, etc.
- Constant training for Founders, CEO, and the operational Executive Office on EQ, Conflict Management, Leadership Styles, Organizational Structuring, Effective Strategy and Policy-making, Democratic Viability, etc.
- Establishing meticulous and fair Performance Metric Measures; 360-degree appraisal system
- Green-house policy / open-door policy
- Jargon/terminology setting
and, of course, an effective HR team in place to help drive the above.
What is the Trickle-Down Effect Theory?
It is something I have observed about driving culture and sustaining it in organizations. A culture is created, cultivated, and trickled down only and only from the Founders / Executive Office, everyone else in the hierarchy are drivers, not creators. One great truth about people is that you cannot be a great person and a shit boss or a great boss and a shit person — you are only as good a boss, as the person you are. And, if you notice some of the happiest workplaces to work at in the world — their Founders and Leaders have been astoundingly, great people — at a humane level. If you intend to run a company that evokes and exudes great culture — you need to be a great leader yourself and groom great leaders, for it’s only great people that make a great organization, and not the other way round.
