If you will join me in the culture kitchen today we’ll explore Why Many Managers Fail to Cook Up Great Corporate Culture
 Rebecca made some chocolate chip cookies one Sunday while I was across town. We were talking on the phone as she was doing it and I asked her to save me some cookie dough because I wouldn’t be home in time to grab some before she cooked it all.
Like so many people I love raw cookie dough, especially chocolate chip cookie dough.  When I got home we had some guests over and I ended up eating the cooked cookies instead of the dough. The next morning(Monday) as I was leaving for a flight I slipped the zip lock bag of chocolate chip cookie dough into my computer bag thinking this will be perfect for the flight to Oklahoma.
Cookie Dough or Peanuts?Â
As we reached altitude… and the flight attendant began handing out peanuts.. I reached into the zip lock and pulled out my cookie dough. I was feeling sorry for my fellow fliers because I was about to indulge in one of my all time favorite treats and they were going to have …peanuts of Biscoff cookies!
So I tore off a chunk and popped it in my mouth. And … well it was good, but it was not nearly as good as I had imagined it was going to be. I thought what’s wrong here? Come on, everyone else has a bag of peanuts and I have COOKIE DOOUGH!! Why isn’t this as great as it usually is and I imagined it would be? Â
Something was Missing
It tasted the same…and Rebecca hadn’t left out any of the listed ingredients. But as I thought about it… I realized that at least two key “unlisted” ingredients were missing… family and tradition. Part of the cookie dough experience at our house involves creative strategies to get Rebecca away from the cookie dough so we can snitch some. And the other part is Rebecca, who always goes along with our lame ploys as she pretends she won’t let me and the kids have any, or at least not very much, so we have to pretend we’re sneaking it and she pretends not to notice. Until she feels we have had enough then we are all banished from the kitchen until the remaining dough is baked.
Cookie Dough is Like Pizza?
Cookie dough it turns out is a lot like pizza. I love pizza but have seldom ordered pizza when I was alone. Pizza is something you do with friends. Friends, gathered around a couple open pizza boxes seem to make bad pizza good, and good pizza great. Friends and gathering are the unlisted ingredients to experiencing great pizza.
Cookie dough is good… Snitching a bit of cookie dough with the kids while Rebecca is pretending not to notice or that she is upset that she caught us is an ingredient that makes cookie dough something that can only be experienced when the right people are present.  Â
Gatherings & Traditions
Managers often fail or fall short in their efforts to create a more positive workplace culture not because they don’t follow the recipe, but because they think management theories and recipes are all that is needed. So they don’t allow for or foster the traditions and gatherings where the unlisted and unpurchasable ingredients can add so much to flavor the work experience, and positive culture.
Workplace Culture without Gatherings and Traditions that allow for Connection and Community is like Cookies without Milk, Cookie Dough without snitching, and Pizza without friends…it just won’t be what it might it have been. Something will be missing.
How will you go about creating and cookie a more powerful and positive corporate culture today?
Kirk out
Two for One Cookies
PS For anyone who goes to http://www.morebetterbooks.com/ between now and the end of April and orders copies of my book “The Cookie Thief” I will see that your order is doubled(softcover only). For more about the classic “Cookie Thief Story” and how you might use it with your work teams visit The Cookie Thief Book home page …and become a fan of The Cookie Thief on Facebook by clicking here or typing in The Cookie Thief while you are logged in.
Thank you … 