Fusion by Denise Lee Yohn

The Big Idea: The best companies fuse their (external) brand with their (internal) culture into one.

• Culture is “the way we do things here.”
• Brand is “how others feel about us.”
• Herb Kelleher says that culture is the key competitive advantage of Southwest Airlines.
• Brand-culture fusion improves employee retention, improves employee motivation and productivity, differentiates you in the marketplace, makes your brand more authentic, and improves customer loyalty.
• First step is to understand your purpose (why we do what we do).
• Second step is to understand your core values (how we do things around here.)
• To align your brand and your culture: 1) communicate, communicate, communicate, 2) remember that actions speak louder than words, 3) engage every leader from bottom to top, and 4) get the right people on the bus.
• Your tools to implement brand-culture culture are: Organizational Design and Operations.
• Design your organization to cultivate your desired culture. Do this through Structure (org chart), Standards (company-wide rules), and Roles.
• Operations is “how you run your organization”. Do this through process and workflow design.
• Put someone in charge of “Employee Experience” (EX), just like you put someone in charge of “Customer Experience”.
• Design the Employee Experience by paying attention to environment, tools, and intangibles.
• Continue to make sure the Employee Experience aligns with your desired culture.
• Design and nurture Rituals and Artifacts that reinforce your culture, your purpose, and your core values.
• Make your employee handbook compelling and unique to your culture.
• To engage employees, consider using videos or letters that highlight your brand and reinforce the brand-culture fusion.
• If you have a stronger culture than brand, consider building your brand on top of your culture. Examples: Unilever and REI have focused on communicating their core values to customers and thereby, building a culture-first brand.