How can the board encourage an open culture?

The board plays a significant role in fostering the right culture in a company. In this member’s session, Dr. Simon Mac Rory (CEO of The Odd Company) discusses the challenges boards face when encouraging members to speak up, if and when they see a bad company culture developing.

• Simon discusses the topic of developing an open culture and how a board should hold executives to account if they don’t speak up.
• Speaking up at work and having the freedom to speak up at work, is now essential in terms of good governance but also in terms of competitive advantage.
• Closed cultures, where staff are not heard, can lead to disastrous results. [Examples included]
• There has been a historic shift where organisations are creating an environment of psychological safety where people feel safe speaking up. These firms have very good competitive advantage.
• Poor culture can have very severe financial consequences for an organisation.
• Boards are responsible for all the behaviours in their organisation. This is what oversight of culture means.
• People turn to social media when they experience bad company culture.
• There is no place to hide from criticism these days.
• As a board, you must look at any reported grievances, examine them. They will tell you an enormous amount about the culture of the organisation.
• Non-executive directors need to understand that they must hold the executive to account. Having a ‘speak up’, open culture is part of this.
• It is the executive’s job to ensure there is a good culture and it is the non-executive’s job to ensure the executives are held to account if the culture turns bad.