On the face of it, this question presupposes that one is negative and the other is positive. Perhaps this isn't always the case.
What is Culture?
Culture is a WAY of life.
What is Strategy?
Strategy is the STYLE for success.
The difference?
Whereas culture is a cocktail of behaviors and patterns both relevant and irrelevant to success per time.
The primary purpose of strategy is to achieve organizational goals, vision and mission.
You can have a short, medium and long term strategy but you don't have short, medium and long term culture.
Culture sticks like a shadow.
Will culture eat strategy for breakfast? The answer depends on an organization’s understanding of the difference between Change and Transformation, Values and Goals, and Mindset and Skillset.
Any organisation that mixes these up will be consistently rattled.
For example, an organization that focuses on skill set without working on mindset as a strategy will not only be eaten but digested by a parallel culture. Like pouring grains into a leaking basket.
In the same breadth, the impact of bad strategy can be salvaged by a solid culture.
The real question is, what is your priority as an organisation, Culture or Strategy? The order matters.
The priority of a company defines its strategy.
Therefore, strategy, good or bad is the mother of culture. Cultures are not self-existential, it is what you gave or gave up to attain success that determines your culture.
Culture is the child raised by strategy, and depending on how it is raised, culture can feed and strengthen strategy or feed on and ravage strategy.
I vouchsafe to say, that strategically positioning your organisation to birth a culture where agreeable values support set goals is the formula for sustainable success.
This is the conversation we should be having. What do you think?
- Charles Okeibunor