We Not Me
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Episode 55 - Why “culture fit” may not be what you want
Show Notes
Organisations think a lot about culture “fit”. But inclusivity strategist Marsha Ramroop believes people need to think more about “culture add”.
Hiring for culture fit leads to homogenous teams and groupthink. Hiring for "culture add" on the other hand, leads to the creation of diverse and inclusive teams. Organisations need to be aware of bias in the recruitment process and take steps to mitigate them. This means investing proper time and money in the recruitment process and evaluating it for improvements. Also having conversations with teams to take ownership of the recruitment process and working together to create an optimal culture.
Takeaways from Dan and Pia
- There’s a crucial difference between culture fit and culture add. That said, it’s important to engage in culture inclusion work with the team before bringing in a new person. This will benefit the team as a whole, leading to a more inclusive environment.
- The sense that everyone should want to belong is in itself a bias that can exclude others.
- Cultural values can always be a way to exclude people who just want to be a high-performing part of a solid team.
- Homogenous teams can operate just fine. But diverse and inclusive teams will always outperform them.
- If you’re working with a difficult person you don’t get along with, no amount of cultural intelligence is going to help!
Links
- Connect with Marsha on LinkedIn
- School Culture Rewired: How to Define, Assess, and Transform it, by Steve Gruenert and Todd Whitaker
- Racism at Work: The Danger of Indifference, by Binna Kandola
- Reinventing Organisations: A Guide to Creating Organisations Inspired by the Next Stage in Human Consciousness, by Frederic Laloux
- How to Win Friends and Influence People, by Dale Carnegie
- Leave us a voice note
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Meet the guests
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Marsha Ramroop is a global award-winning Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) strategist, and Founder Director of Unheard Voice Consultancy Ltd. She has formulated a culture change methodology which has been recognised as successful with an international prize from the UN-backed conglomerate of best practice for personal and organisational development, the IFTDO. She was the inaugural Director of Inclusion and Diversity at the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) so has a clear understanding of how a traditional profession has been running and the challenges it faces. Her culture change programme for staff at RIBA received 100% recommendation feedback from managers and significant behavioural shift within months. In addition to inclusion expertise, Marsha has a post-graduate degree in Business Management, which included organisational behaviour, as well as a degree and post-graduate in Journalism - originally having a 30-year career in broadcasting; skills she now uses to ensure clear communication. Whilst working at the BBC, she led inclusion efforts across the Midlands and developed a pioneering inclusive recruitment pilot for presenting staff, and an inclusive reporter scheme. Marsha is also Vice-Chair of the Institute of Equality and Diversity Professionals, an institute which strives to verify and set standards for the growing vocation of EDI practitioners. She works with the Cultural Intelligence Center, the global headquarters of cultural intelligence (CQ) as one of their published and highlighted thought-leaders on impactful organisational change, as well as a worldwide trainer and facilitator.
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