The benefits of a strong corporate culture are both intuitive and supported by social science. According to James L. Heskett, culture “can account for 20-30% of the differential in corporate performance when compared with ‘culturally unremarkable’ competitors.” And HBR writers have offered advice on navigating different geographic cultures, selecting jobs based on culture, changing cultures, and offering feedback across cultures, among other topics.

But what makes a culture? Each culture is unique and myriad factors go into creating one, but I’ve observed at least six common components of great cultures. Isolating those elements can be the first step to building a differentiated culture and a lasting organization.

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Join Nancy Napier at the Boise Public Library to discuss her latest book Wise Beyond Your Field.

The book provides an inside look at what leaders in some high-performing, highly-creative organizations in Boise have learned about boosting organizational performance.

She will be appearing at three locations May 28-30th at 7:00pm with guest speakers John McFarlane, Gary Allen, and Linda Clark-Santos.

Wise Beyond Your Field Book Discussion Dates

Nancy Napier and John McFarlane – Book Discussion
When: Tuesday, May 28th
Time: 7:00 p.m.
Where: Library! at Cole & Ustick

Nancy Napier and Gary Allen – Book Discussion
When: Wednesday, May 29th
Time: 7:00pm
Where: Main Library

Nancy Napier and Linda Clark-Santos
When: Thursday, May 30th
Time: 7:00pm
Where: Library! at Collister

Idaho is going through a very significant population shift, according to data collected and researched by KTVB. It’s a change that’s alarming some jobs experts.Using drivers license and state-issued identification card data provided by the Idaho Department of Transportation, KTVB examined trends. License data is the most available way to look at general demographics in Idaho. Since everyone must hand over his or her card when moving to a new state, general records can give a good picture of adults moving in, and moving out.

States shaded dark blue are the common destinations for Idahoan’s out-migrating(left) | States shaded dark red represent the origin of workers migrating to Idaho(right)

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SurveyMonkey is an atypical technology company. They’ve been profitable from almost day one. They’ve grown at an astonishing rate and even with well over 100 million in revenue, refuse to go public. SurveyMonkey has done all of this while creating a culture that enables the company’s CEO, Dave Goldberg, to leave the office by 5:30 PM. In this First Round CEO Summit talk, Dave Goldberg shares the unconventional ways he’s transformed SurveyMonkey from a 12-person startup into a SaaS powerhouse.

In his seminal work on business management, “Good To Great”, author Jim Collins’s most significant insight was that true organizational greatness is not merely a function of circumstance, but rather the result of the conscious decision to become great combined with the discipline to undergo the rigors necessary to achieve such a goal. Few organizations exemplify proof of this concept better than the Boise State University Broncos football program. Over the last decade, it’s hard to find an organization anywhere that has risen faster from relative obscurity to the pinnacle of its field than Boise State.

Chris Petersen has built one of the most successful organizations in the world on the premise that cultural fit is far more important than pure talent. (Image credit: Getty Images)

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I’ve been watching more football and basketball recently – mostly because I’m studying how the Boise State University programs work as organizations. As I’ve gotten to know some of the coaches, I’ve also become more vested in what happens in a game. The danger is that if the games are exciting (read: unless Boise State is three touchdowns ahead), I get so stressed, I can hardly sit still.

That’s when I start focusing more on the coaches. What I see from a distance are people making fast decisions and conveying those decisions to the players. How does that happen? If I could understand how coaches make good, fast decisions during a game, maybe that could be helpful for business leaders as well?

So I asked one of Boise State’s football coaches about it. Chris Strausser is associate head coach and also oversees the offensive line and running game. (Don’t ask me what all that means, please.) But he was able to explain to me, the ultimate sports novice, how decision making and communication works during a game so I could think about how that might help business.

Ready? Here goes. (more…)

Recently I had to think like a gang member. I’m not in a gang, mind you, but I run with one.

And when I wanted make their latest production public, I was speechless. Literally. I had no voice. And that’s when I drew on lessons from The Gang.

I was hoping to speak at a press conference to celebrate the publication of “Wise Beyond Your Field,” co-authored by The Gang, leaders of a group of high performing, highly creative organizations based in the Valley. They range from Boise State head football coach Chris Petersen to Ada County Sheriff Gary Raney, from three CEOs – Jamie Cooper of Drake Cooper, Don Kemper of Healthwise and Bob Lokken of WhiteCloud – to Mark Hofflund of the Idaho Shakespeare Festival and John Michael Schert of the Trey McIntyre Project. A heady group to be around, let me tell you. (more…)

Jamie Cooper, CEO of Drake Cooper, spotlights Nancy Napier on their recent blog post.

Here’s a snip-it of his article:

What is The Gang, with capital letters, you ask? Well, it’s a think-tank-creative-mind-mixer-strange-combo-of-people-that-don’t-fit-together assembled by the really brilliant and tireless Director of the Center for Creativity and Innovation at Boise State University, Nancy Napier.

Left to Right: Randy Hales, Nancy Napier, Chris Petersen, Don Kemper

 Nancy is also an Adjunct Professor at Aalborg University (Denmark), has hosted a weekly radio talk show, writes a blog for Psychology Today, “Creativity Without Borders“, has authored several books – too many to mention here and has published a steady stream of articles in various places, like this one from a few weeks ago called “Three Books on Tactics for Landing a Job and Building a Life“. And when she’s not doing all this, she spends the rest of her spare time scouring the world for insights into how ideas work. Whatever the medium, Nancy loves to talk and write about “ah ha moments”, that spark of creativity that inspires a new way of thinking and leads to something interesting for an individual, a group or an organization.

As if this isn’t enough for one person, she decided she needed The Gang. (more…)