When cognitive and emotional collide and culture and brand blur.
I’ve been thinking a bit about how culture really works in this kind of protracted lockdown situation — and beyond, assuming we return to office life. Before COVID, a company, in theory at least, could ‘impose’ a culture on its people — this was how we do things around here, like it or ship out. And for the salaried employer, it made up some of the bargain for those 8+ hours away from home.
But that’s no longer possible. And despite valiant attempts to sustain work culture remotely, it’s never going to work the same as it did in an office environment, now it intrudes on our personal lives. Few of us can truly compartmentalise work, surrounded by home-schoolers, spouses or flatmates we never dreamt may become our co-workers. Or indeed for those living alone, dealing with solitude day and night. I don’t feel like I would respond too well to any enforced culture from an employer right now.
Cognitive vs Emotional culture
I started googling and found this fascinating HBR piece on two types of culture: Cognitive and Emotional. Cognitive covers the things we can see and touch: imagery (values on a wall), the norms (the language, ways of working), the artefacts (layout, dress etc); Emotional are the things we feel, our affective qualities which influence mood and attitudes.
Both are important, but the Emotional culture becomes even more important when we are working remotely from one another — and particularly when we are facing new stresses and pressures. We can no longer — or perhaps choose not to — cling to the cognitive symbols of our company culture. But the way we connect emotionally with one another — particular with those in our team, and especially our leaders — becomes hugely influential on how we relate to our employer and our work. A curt email, talking over a colleague, not waiting sufficient time for a response, “Yeah I guess we can talk, how about next Friday?” These can all be hugely damaging, because in this pressured, solitary environment, they seem to count for so much more.
It’s the same in branding of course. We all recognise a company’s branding in its visual identity, fonts, slogans etc — cognitive again. But it’s how our emotions feel that determine how loyal we feel, how we identify, whether we feel proud to belong to that company’s community. The second we sense something that feels incompatible with that brand, or in some way misaligned with who we thought they were, we retreat. The key word is ‘fee’. Visually the brand looks the same, the product works as before, but something doesn’t feel right. Sometimes it’s even too subtle to describe.
It made think of this 2 x 2 which shows why brand and culture are so intrinsically linked, and why increasingly today in such a world of transparency, they feed one another — positively and negatively:
In practice
I am a passionate follower of Patagonia. There’s something about the geeky clothes that speaks to something deeper inside me, something comforting that reminds me of my youth. At various times in my life I wouldn’t be seen dead in Patagonia clothes, except maybe a faded t-shirt but definitely not one of its old man’s fleece. But now the Patagonia vest screams start-up and VC and suddenly a lot more looks really cool — and comfortable. Or have I just become an old man? That orange puffer looks so cosy.
Of course the clothes are just Patagonia’s product, the cognitive part that we can see and touch. We can feel the quality, we can read about the materials used and the “no harm” approach.
But Patagonia’s brand is of course so much more enduring and deeply connecting than the clothing; it speaks with authority as protector of our environment, and of our planet’s survival. It creates a welcoming home for collective outrage against the inertia and pace of the world’s response to climate change.
And how does the brand, relate to its internal expression, culture? For sure, this is where many companies struggle, since they turn out not to be quite the same places inside as they sell outside.
That’s not the case at Patagonia, where the founder, Yvon Chouinard’s own values continue to permeate through the company — and indeed may even be heightened because of Patagonia’s employee community.
Yvon was an early believer in family, supporting childcare co-located with the offices, and even encouraging children onsite. Multi-generational families work at Patagonia. Gender parity exists in leadership roles and almost 100% rate of women return to work after having children. Patagonia grants all employees two months a year to support environmental projects, makes bail for employees jailed for protesting on environmental grounds and understands that good surf never comes second to work priorities. In addition, the company gives away 1% revenues to environmental projects and 100% of Black Friday revenues — fully supported by its staff.
So, big tick on all the cognitive measure of culture. But what about the emotional side of culture. Here, you only have to talk to people about what it feels like at Patagonia, to hear of women comfortably breast-feeding in the office, taking every other Friday off to be with family and friends, junior members of staff promoting their own causes and projects.
And the result? Patagonia is wildly over-subscribed for its intern programme, it has the lowest attrition in the fashion industry and its staff are evangelical about their company.
All this spills out into its branding — leading many of us to buy into Patagonia and buy more of its products. The truth is this company has got so much right, the cognitive and emotional seem to collide, just as much as the brand and culture blur. Each feeds the other.
A sure sign of success.
The 2x2 again, with my interpretations for Patagonia.
For more on this take a look at this article and video from Dean Carter, Patagonia VP of HR, Legal & Finance.
Lessons for mere mortals
So what can we learn about this mid-lockdown and afterwards.
1. Firstly, it’s all about knowing who you are and who you are not — Patagonia’s founder has written lots of books describing the kind of un-business he wanted to build and what he wanted to avoid. The first step in enlightenment is self-knowledge
2. Secondly, it’s a long game — Patagonia talks a lot about its community, made up of people inside the company and its loyal customers. This didn’t happen overnight, it takes patience because it’s all about trust.
3. Thirdly, it’s very consciously built, first, emotionally — then cognitively. How many of us as brand and culture builders start with the words, what we want other people to think, what we want to see and touch — rather than the feeling we want our communities to experience, the emotional state?
So let’s use this time with our people and our customers to build much deeper emotional connections. Don’t try to hurry or get through conversations because you’re “back to back all day”, seek to properly understand how people around you feel and co-design the kind of company you want to rebuild once we’re through this period.
Listen to your people to understand the kind of emotions they feel about your brand and culture. Identify the words that resonate with you and others and sound like they make your organisation special. Start with the emotional.
It may take some time until we can fall back on the cognitive elements of culture, but in the meantime we can prioritise building a ‘feeling’ culture.
What do you think?
