How Culture Works

I call myself a culture builder. I’ve chosen this work after spending more than 30 years in a profession notorious for toxic culture. Today, we are experiencing the impact of this as food service establishments struggle to find people to come to work. In the year and a half since the pandemic began, food service workers have had an opportunity to say enough is enough. Low wages, poor working conditions, unreasonable work schedules, no health benefits, unchecked harrassment, poor leadership training, and dead-end work - this is the culture of the hospitality industry. I know it doesn’t have to be this way.

Culture is an overused word these days but I don’t think many people understand the full scope of its’ meaning. Culture is like air - it’s there and we don’t even know it. Even if you aren’t conscious of it, culture exists. “The characteristics of everyday existence” - the social norms that we accept as a community. Values inform culture and culture is the expression of those values in the way we operate.

For example, I was born into a family that placed tremendous value on education. I understood this very early on. Our family culture revolved around it. The structures my parents cultivated were in service of education. Once, as a senior in high school, after fulfilling our family’s requirement to get into a top-tier university, I decided to fail physics my last semester because I didn’t like it. My family wasn’t just angry; they were completely insensed. I had done something so inexcusable in the culture of our family, they thought I had lost my mind. I had completely violated the culture code.

When values aren’t clearly defined, culture takes on a life of it’s own. It becomes dictated by personalities or necessity. The personality quirks of the GM or the chef define the culture. The necessity to turn a profit trumps the need to pay people a living wage. Urgency trumps any attempt at thoughtful hiring. Serving food and surviving as a business takes priority over culture building. Ironically, building great culture is the key to creating a thriving business.

Culture must be intentionally created as an expression of values. Those values must take into account the changes we wish to see in the industry. If you wish to see this industry throw off the 100 year old reputation for toxic culture, you must begin by defining values and then look closely at where your culture is succeeding at being an expression of those values.