A Consistent Culture

21st November 2013

Back onto sport analogies this week, as there seem to be quite a lot of international matches going on at the moment on the football, cricket and rugby (both union and league) fronts. Amongst all the main stories, one of the slightly smaller headlines, which caught my eye, was about the banning of 6 of the Australian rugby union team from playing this week, as they had broken the rules of their team culture. Essentially they had all gone out for a meal midway through last week, but these 6 had decided to ignore the team “rules of the game”, had drunk far too much, and thereby overstepped the line.

As team manager/coach, it must be very tempting to overlook this transgression, as the loss of 6 first choice players in a team of 15, could of course be a major detriment to the side, and could potentially lead to them losing the match. However, the manager has taken the view that he cannot let this sort of thing happen (the thin end of the wedge) and has subsequently punished them accordingly. I for one, applaud his tough stance, as he ran the risk of far worse happening in the future if he did not stick to his guns.

The same thing applies to your business. The temptation to overlook transgressions or even oversights by your staff, in particular those who you might consider key personnel, is indeed strong, but if you do so, you are opening the door to further wrong doings in the future. Once you have lost your integrity over discipline, it is very difficult to pull it back, because you can easily be accused of inconsistency or being unfair.

So create a clear and strong culture in your business, and then make sure you live by the rules you have drawn up. If you don’t, you can be sure that you will have greater problems to live with in the long run.

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