Who is responsible for the `culture\’ within an organisation?

At the start of my own professional leadership journey I was completely oblivious of my influence within the work environment. The assumption was that workplace culture was decided by someone else and the link between leadership behaviour and organisational culture was not so obvious to me. With hindsight, even when I found myself working in toxic environments, I didn\’t realise I could have influenced change, and was totally unaware of my impact on the workforce.

Have you ever worked in an environment where you felt you didn\’t fit in? Being a minority within a group can be daunting, especially if our ways of living is very different. Some people may prefer to socialise in a pub, whereas for others the pub environment might be forbidden. One of the greatest challenges for leadership in a diverse, multi-cultural society is creating a culture of belonging where staff feel valued. With some high profile charities in the public eye for poor equality diversity and inclusion, the problem seems far more challenging than we can imagine.

In 2019 the Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations produced a report \’how does the charity sector think about diversity?\’ It highlighted there is no unified definition of diversity across the sector and \”discussion around race in particular is stilted and uncomfortable.\” We are well aware that there is a serious lack of diverse representation and lived experience at leadership level. You can read it here: Acevo.org.uk 2019

I once worked in a very uncomfortable toxic environment where I saw no \’trust\’ between colleagues. The organisation was driven by a culture of mistrust and lies. I was told it was okay to be dishonest about the length of our breaks because everybody did it. However, when I refused to do it too, I suddenly found myself totally alone. Even though I loved the way I was able to serve my clients, it was such a horrible environment to work in. I sensed suspicion in colleagues and sometimes I even caught people talking about me.

I started \”Culture Conversations\” almost two months ago with the intention of having open dialogues with my connections who are industry experts with diverse perspectives of lived experience in the area of diversity and inclusion. My live show took place on a Sunday or Monday evening (London time). It is remarkable how many people have reached out to me to let me know how grateful they are that I represent them. It seems representation is necessary to creating an environment where staff feel psychologically safe enough to openly discuss their cultural differences, without the fear of repercussions. You can catch the culture conversations on my YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@monwaraali/streams

The best work cultures are ones where colleagues take genuine interest in learning about each other and therefore can look out for each other. At my current workplace I have an Irish colleague who really looks after his team. He has even gone the extra mile in arranging a quiet private space for his Muslim colleagues to pray during the day.

In the early years of my career I may have paid very little attention to an organisation\’s culture. However, these days an organisation\’s culture plays a big role in influencing job and career changes.