We’ve all heard the mantra, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast,” but is it true? What exactly is the relationship between culture and strategy? I have argued that they are two sides of the same coin and that culture should always be connected to what drives the success of the enterprise, but how integrated should the two be in terms of processes and systems? I don’t think this issue is cut and dry. I think a lot of organizations have been very successful keeping strategy as its own thing, fairly distinct from culture, even though that personally does not make a lot of sense to me. That makes this a good topic for the smart people in our network to kick around for an hour on twitter!

This is what we’ll explore in this month’s twitter chat on culture, #CultureChat. The chat is scheduled for Thursday, July 30th at 1pm ET. Just pick your favorite twitter chat tool and join us then for a lively conversation using the hashtag #CultureChat. Here are the chat questions we’re working on:

• In what circumstances does culture eat strategy?
• Does strategy ever eat culture?
• Which side should adjust to the other when things change, and why?
• Strategies change every few years at least–how often should culture change?
• How do you embed culture conversations into your strategy processes?
  • Also, what are the consequences when organizations don’t do this?
• How do you make sure your culture directly connects to your org’s success?
• How do you ensure culture gets the same implementation focus (tracking, measurement) as strategy?

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