Culture Keynote Speaker

How Culture Eats Strategy For Breakfast

Organizational Culture Keynote Speaker Janine Hamner Holman

Ultimately, organizational culture dictates the way that people act and interact with each other, and how they operate with customers.

– Janine Hamner Holman, Organizational Keynote Speaker

Peter Drucker, the Godfather of management consulting whose teachings became the foundation of the modern business corporation famously said, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” In the experience of organizational culture keynote speaker Janine Hamner Holman, what he’s underlining is that it’s always people who are implementing any strategy that an organization develops. If your people aren’t aligned, don’t share a common vision, aren’t rowing in the same direction, you can have the best strategies in the world, and it won’t matter.

Getting your organizational culture right is the underpinning of all effective organizations.

There is a current raging debate about what “organizational culture” encompasses. Some say it’s the stories we tell ourselves about the organization for which we work. Some say it is entirely top down driven – it’s the way that the CEO works and pushes everyone else to work. Maybe it’s how we treat each other – or our customers. Others say it’s what we do when no one is paying attention.

Regardless of what’s in it, every organization has their own unique organizational culture – usually made up of a combination of underlying beliefs, assumptions, values and ways of interacting that contribute to the unique environment of an organization. It dictates the way that people act and interact with each other and how they operate with customers.

Over the last decade, there’s been a drastic increase in organizations paying attention to culture.  A Deloitte University Press study revealed that 87% of the organizations surveyed say that culture and employee engagement is their top challenge.

And yet, according to the Harvard Business Review, “Executives are often confounded by culture because much of it is anchored in unspoken behaviors, mindsets, and social patterns. Many leaders either let it go unmanaged or relegate it to HR, where it becomes a secondary concern for the business. This is a mistake, because properly managed, culture can help them achieve change and build organizations that will thrive in even the most trying times.”

As an internationally sought-after organizational culture keynote speaker and expert in helping organizations create an intentional culture, Janine Hamner Holman brings three decades of experience and real-life stories of organizations that have been challenged by their culture – and the rewards of getting their culture explicit and operational.

In her keynote, Janine recalls CEOs who have wanted the culture to be organic, those who have delegated it to the realm of one person or department, and those who felt it could be created through motivational posters or visionary speeches.

But culture actually needs to be intentional and nurtured.  When organizations begin the quest to culture by getting clear on organizational mission/vision/values, create culture aligned with these aspects, and then connect those to organizational strategies, strong cultures can then drive positive organizational outcomes.

In this talk, organizational culture keynote speaker Janine Hamner Holman connects those dots for individual contributors, managers, and leadership alike. If your organization lacks any one element, you can look to help them get created and create them for yourself and your team.

Importantly, the two youngest generations in the workplace, Millennials (born 1981 – 1996) and Gen Z (1997 onward), are demanding workplaces that are engaging and work that is meaningful.  Meaning that if my job is sweeping the floors, I need to understand how that connects to the mission of our company and how that makes me feel positively about the work that we’re doing and to which I contribute.

In fact, to attract – and retain – top talent, organizations are going to have to get a handle on their management culture and how employees are treated.  Most managers became managers because they were really good at their jobs.  As a result, most managers have never been trained in how to manage employees and how to get the best from their teams.  One of the things that separates Janine from her colleagues is that she has actionable tips that people can use today to increase their effectiveness as managers, leaders, and individual contributors.  In her role as an organizational culture keynote speaker, Janine wants to ensure that everyone is uplifted and motivated…and empowered with new tools to aid in their effectiveness.

Thank you, Janine, for sharing about this important topic!

– Genein Letford, M.Ed, CEO, CAFFE Strategies, Best Selling Author of From Debt to Destiny

As an organizational culture keynote speaker, Janine has developed a talk that is a compelling look at how established leaders increase their effectiveness and all who want to motivate and lead can begin that journey.  Janine’s expert perspectives on culture provides her audience to this keynote with specific tools they need to become more conscious leaders, more engaged team players, and stronger additions to high-functioning teams.

In addition to her work as an organizational culture keynote speaker, Janine Hamner Holman is the CEO of J&J Consulting Group and the author of the forthcoming book, Why Are the Soft Skills so Damn Hard…and Many Other Things We Got Wrong, as well as a contributing author to the forthcoming book, The Shoulders of Mighty Women.