What is a Paper Culture?

We all have experienced, worked for, or done business with them. Paper cultures are cultures where the organization’s actual culture differs from its stated culture. They say one thing but act differently. Their claims do not align with reality. Their culture is words deep, empty, hollow, shallow, and a shell. Rather than a healthy, vibrant culture, these organizations focus more on buzzwords, fad chasing, want-to-be, coping trends, and box-checking.

A paper culture is the gap between an organization's stated and actual culture. It is an about-section culture. Paper cultures favor words, the latest organizational trends, and empty fluff rather than action. They fall somewhere between what leaders believe their organization should be and how leaders want to be viewed by others. Paper cultures are an epidemic.

Wall hanging or Framework?

Like a resume of keywords, missions, and cultures are written to say what the leader believes they should rather than having a purpose. Once written, most organizations' cultures are left to fend for themselves, drifting far away from the buzzwords jammed into their about section and framed mission hung in the conference room.

The desired culture only exists on paper; it does not serve as the foundation or guidelines for the organization to live by. Instead, it is treated like formal ceremonial documents, regurgitated at organizational meetings, rather than a daily reminder of who you are or what makes you unique. A vibrant culture is the framework for every decision, action, and word spoken within an organization.

Leaders' box-checking 101

Create a mission and a vision, develop a training program, and write an about section. Say something about how much we care, our emphasis on quality and innovation, and squeeze in our customer and staff focus. Check, check, check, boxes checked. Going through the motions, checking boxes instead of intention programs and policies, is the backbone of paper cultures. Acton does not align with words.

The GAP

Paper Cultures are best described as the GAP. The gap between words and action, knowing and understanding, an organization’s about section and daily reality, and outward appearance (website, building, marketing, and office) and inner actions. It is the gap between what we should be and who we are.

The gap starts with recruitment, setting the tone throughout the employee life cycle. What does it say about an organization that posts nonexistent jobs, has long, painful application processes, ghost candidates, cute interview questions, and processes without a clear purpose, and an overall lack of respect for the candidate’s skills, experience, and time? 

Instead of the innovative, people-centered, quality-focused organization highlighted in the About Section, stakeholders are left with a version of everyone else’s broken culture.  The GAP resulted in frustrated staff paper cultures.

What Does a Toxic Culture Look Like

From the outside, a paper culture is designed to look like any other. But with time, it is unable to hide its true identity.

Make no mistake about it: paper cultures are toxic. They affect all aspects of our professional and personal lives, including our mental, spiritual, and physical health. Paper cultures have many faces, from outright brutal treatment of staff members to subtle forms. It does not matter if they publicly berate staff or choose politics over performance; toxic is toxic. There is no sliding scale when it comes to something that kills; only the timeline changes.

Evidence of Paper Culture

History and headlines are both filled with conflict between staff and leadership. There is a history of labor conflicts regarding working conditions, constant headlines regarding work from home, and other leadership-staff conflicts. The subject may have changed over the years, but the conflict rages on.

The evidence continues with endless surveys of unhappy, disengaged staff members, the percentage of staff members looking for employment, constant turnover, and poor service.

By-products of Paper Cultures

Poor customer service, lack of direction, unclear priorities, placing blame, inefficiencies, politics, disengaged staff, the list is endless and affects every aspect of every stakeholder’s life. There is no escaping or limiting; the effects of a toxic culture are not bound by the 9 to 5.

Any culture, organizational or otherwise, demands that we modify our behavior to thrive. The problem with paper cultures is that to thrive, they require paper products, policies, training, and people who, in turn, become paper leaders.

To advance, paper leaders continue to advance toxic cultures. This is what they know; it is the path to success. To do otherwise would limit their growth, being viewed as an outsider, not a team player, or a fit. Cultures are self-regulating. They determine winners and losers. Only paper leaders can thrive in paper cultures. 

So How Did We Get Here

Most paper cultures start with good intentions, but a missing skill set, poor choice of priorities, or lack of knowledge quickly shows how fragile organizational cultures are. They fall short, are hollow, empty, and have no substance. They lack the consistency of who leaders claim they are.

Me

I went from one toxic culture to another. It is a painful learning experience, but the lessons remain deeply ingrained. The situations encouraged me to seek insight and creative solutions to create healthy cultures. I am the voice of the underdog, the overlooked, unrecognized outsider, and the future, unidentified superstar.

As a leader and coach, I aim to guide individuals in reaching their full potential, often surprising themselves and exceeding their expectations. Recognizing talent, developing systems, establishing priorities, and strong leadership are all critical elements. However, no factor is more important than establishing cultures where every detail is consistent with who you are, your objectives, values, and your stated culture.

A vibrant, healthy culture is the key to staff member's flourishing and enhances the experience of all stakeholders. It transforms those once considered cultural outsiders into superstars.

Why Paper cultures

There are no benefits or excuses for a toxic culture. The advantages of an engaged, happy staff include more productivity, increased creativity, higher quality, better retention, less politics, and less stress. The supporting data for the benefits of a healthy culture is endless. Yet, with all our advances over the last few decades, healthy cultures remain a unicorn.

I realized that leaders do not set out to establish toxic cultures, which led to a search for why so many. PaperCultures was created to assist in filling the gap between knowledge and understanding, providing resources and tools to transform paper cultures into dynamic, living cultures. Great cultures are easy when they are your top priority in action. PaperCultures is the missing piece to establishing the culture leaders desire.