When making strategic decisions, it is important to first understand the context in which those decisions are being made. Decisions which work well for Google may not work for the Department of Defense, and may be even less appropriate for a lean startup. This may seem obvious, but why? The right strategy isn't purely a consequence of the size or domain of an organization. Culture matters.
Kinds of Culture
The best model for cultures to date was put forward by Accelerate, a seminal work by Dr. Forsgren, Jez Humble, et al. It defines three clear kinds of culture: bureaucratic, pathological, and generative. These classifications are derived from the subject of the cultural values.
Bureaucratic
Values: Process
When you ask someone why they are taking action, the answer will commonly be "because this is how we do it". Prototypical examples include many government organizations and healthcare in the USA.
These organizations value process above everything. They come from a belief that over time the organization will encounter all possible problems in its problem domain. By creating processes to address all possible problems humans will eventually no longer need to make active, conscious decisions.
Pathological
Values: Power
When you ask someone why they are taking action, the answer will commonly be "because this gives us more control over…" Prototypical examples include Microsoft, IBM, and Apple.
These organizations value power and control above everything. They come from a belief that if the organization, and the people in it, have as much control as possible over whatever domain they are in, they will ultimately be able to accomplish whatever it is they need to do.
Generative
Values: Mission Objective
When you ask someone why they are taking action, the answer will commonly be because doing so will allow us to accomplish our objective. Prototypical examples include Plantbid, Valve, and Google (circa 2005).
These organizations value achieving their objectives. Success is defined by revenue, or acquisition, or IPO. Messengers are safe. Information is sought actively. Good faith abounds. Everything and everyone exists in service of the mission.
Processes will be created, but discarded as soon as a better way is discovered. Control will be assumed where helpful, but intentionally avoided where emergence will carry the day. If you are familiar with the lean startup philosophy, it aligns well with generative cultures.
Practical Value
This way of categorizing culture is a helpful tool for understanding what context one is in, or what context one wishes to create. Formulating strategy and making decisions requires alignment with the organization. Understanding the culture you inhabit will help inform what your peers are likely to support, and ultimately what is likely to work in your organization.
It also helps understand why certain tools work so well for some companies, but not others. For example, many organizations get great use out of Slack and Teams. Still other organizations find Discord a better communication method. I submit that generative cultures will gravitate toward Discord, while pathological and bureaucratic cultures will gravitate toward Slack or Teams. If there is interest, I will write a follow up article explaining why.
Learn More
Interested in learning more about generative cultures in particular? Check out the official DORA page on the subject: Generative organizational culture (DORA).
And here's a link to the book Accelerate which puts this model into context.