In The 100 Best Business Books of All Time, the authors wrote, “The number one reason people buy business books is to find solutions to problems.”
You’re holding this business book in your hands. You probably bought it because you’re looking for a solution to a problem. This book was written for entrepreneurs and is about company culture. Ipso facto, your company has a problem with its culture.
Perhaps you wouldn’t quite characterize it as dysfunctional, as this section is named, but the fact remains that you’re likely reading this because the environment at your business is—sub-optimal, shall we say? As such, it makes sense that the section that speaks most directly to your reason for buying the book should have more space devoted to it than the other three.
The good news is that we want to help you turn things around. As noted earlier, culture is often pushed to the side until it becomes a problem. If you don’t like how things look in your company, you’re experiencing the same feeling many entrepreneurs do. Having a less-than-ideal culture is normal—regrettable, but normal.
Fortunately, in keeping with the spirit of earlier sections, most of the advice in this one is easy to implement. Not one of the authors suggests hiring an outside consultancy or bringing in mediators. While those professionals have their place, “change has to come from within.” Yes, it’s a cliché, but that’s because it’s one of those fundamental truths that we seem to constantly circle back to.
In perhaps one of the most poignant pieces in this compilation, you’re going to read about the CEO of a tech company who admits that his company had a fundamentally flawed culture—and then the steps the executive team took to turn it around. Their culture makeover didn’t take money or even a substantial investment of time; it took courage.
Spoiler alert: his story has a happy ending.