Are You Thinking About Culture Fit the Wrong Way?
Are you thinking about culture fit the wrong way? Many leaders will confidently proclaim ‘culture fit’ as a top criteria in hiring. But what do they mean by ‘culture’, and what personal characteristics are used to assess ‘fit’? Too often, this lack of clarity and discipline results in merely hiring more people who are the same as us, and who we’re comfortable with, which can quickly lead to organizational homogeny, group-think, and collective blindspots. What’s really important for ‘fit’ is hiring people who align with organization’s mission and core values — but that’s not the same as your culture.
Instead of hiring people who are culture fits, you may instead want to seek people who are culture adds.
The Competing Values Framework(1). Graphics © 2024 by Agile Leadership Journey
To do this, you first need a concrete way to model and assess your culture. We use the Competing Values Framework (CVF), shown here. It defines four culture archetypes: Collaborate, Create, Compete, and Control.
Research from applying CVF shows that high-performing companies need a reasonable balance of the 4 culture archetypes. If you allow one quadrant to dominate too much, you get the dysfunctional form of each:
Collaborate —> Mediocrity
Create —> Chaos & misalignment
Compete —> Toxicity
Control —> Bureaucracy
“Beyond mission and values, you’re not looking for fit. You want misfits. A variety of backgrounds and experiences. A range of personalities and identities. Diversity of thought and action.”
Shifting toward Collaborate. Graphics © 2024 by Agile Leadership Journey
Research from the American Psychological Association(3) backs up the CVF findings that culture balance is important. Compete-oriented companies achieve stronger financial performance gains if they hire a CEO who is Collaboration-focused. These ‘misfit’ leaders bring balance to the organization, as shown here. This demonstrates what we mean by hiring people who are culture adds.
Shifting towards Compete. Graphics © 2024 by Agile Leadership Journey
The same APA research shows that Collaboration-oriented companies perform better with a Compete-focused CEO, as represented in this diagram. These leaders add a strength which previously had been a weakness, creating the crucial culture balance.
Learn more about CVF and Culture
Learn more about how to deliberately shape your organizations’s culture in our Certified Agile Leader® workshops, or contact us to run the CVF assessment for your company.
(1) Competing Values Leadership. Kim S. Cameron, Robert E. Quinn, Jeff Degraff & Anjan V. Thakor.
(2) Work-Life Podcast: The Wrong Way to Think About Culture Fit