Topics: Culture

The meeting after the meeting

Have you ever been in a position where an investment committee finished, where the paper was good, the discussion was serious and the decision was made? And, then, the team (understandably) moves on.

But then, later that day, one line from the meeting comes back to you. A challenge that was raised but not really explored. A moment when the room got slightly too eager to agree. Nothing dramatic, just a faint sense that the conclusion arrived a little too neatly.

Most experienced investors know this feeling. It matters more than people like to admit.

Formal process is important. Meetings, papers and clear decisions all matter. But some of the best judgement in investing happens after the official discussion has ended. That is when people reflect on what really happened in the room, rather than what the minutes say happened.

This is useful because investment decisions are never driven by analysis alone. They are shaped by status, fatigue, group mood, time pressure and the natural desire for closure. Teams can have a sound process on paper and still make decisions in conditions that are less robust than they look.

Sometimes a meeting produces real clarity. Sometimes it produces relief. It’s important to recognise that those are not the same thing.

The question worth asking afterwards is not “Was the decision right?” That often cannot be known for some time. The better question is “Was the decision made well?” Did the discussion sharpen the issue, or just settle it? Was dissent properly tested, or merely noted? Did the team become more precise, or just more comfortable?

This is where mature investment cultures have an edge. They do not treat the formal process as sacred simply because it is formal. They make room for a second layer of judgement. Not endless reopening of decisions, but honest reflection on how the decision was reached.

That can lead to practical improvements. A position may still be taken, but at a smaller size. The monitoring may become tighter. A team may realise that the thesis is fine, but the quality of challenge was weak. Or a manager may simply notice that the room was being influenced by the confidence of one person more than the substance of the case.

None of this is soft. It is part of decision hygiene.

In investing, process is not just what sits on the page. It is also what happens in the room and what lingers after people leave it. Investors who pay attention to that tend to build better judgement over time. They are not just analysing opportunities. They are analysing the quality of their own thinking.

That is usually worth the extra five minutes.

Shaping company culture in a hybrid-working world

Everything that leaders say and do reveals something about their organisation’s culture. Every business has a company culture. You can’t choose not to have one. You just do. The question is, “Is it a culture that you’ve proactively shaped? Or is it a culture that has evolved because you’ve left it to its own devices?”

What is an organisational culture?

There are many ways to define culture. At its simplest, some say culture is just behaviour. However, we think there’s a lot more to it than that. Another way to define it is to say that culture is the underlying assumptions, values, beliefs and expectations shared by an organisation’s members. It can be positive or negative, proactive or reactive.

There are many models of organisational culture. The Johnson-Scholes model suggests that a culture is built on the following six factors:

• Control systems

• Rituals and routines

• Stories

• Symbols

• Organisational structures

• Power structures

We’re going to explore these factors to discuss how leaders can shape culture to achieve effective hybrid working.

Control systems

Organisations use different means to control employee behaviour, from pay to training to disciplinary systems, and many more. When employees work from home, this reduces the amount of direct control leaders have over them.

Leaders can either choose to trust the individual, give them clear boundaries and expectations, and let them get on, or not. If your people aren’t engaged and motivated enough to work productively, trying to micro-manage them won’t improve the situation.

Indeed, showing that you trust them will go a long way towards increasing their motivation. Most of us extend this level of trust regularly. When we hire a babysitter, for example. Or when we have a builder working on our house. So why wouldn’t we do the same for our people?

Rituals and routines

Hybrid working creates huge opportunities to change pre-existing rituals and routines. Many employees are now unfamiliar with the old routines or are new and never knew them in the first place. This enables leaders to establish new ones that would be more suited to the culture they’d like to develop.

At the same time, the continuation of full or part-time remote working brings with it the need for fresh approaches to how we work together. For some employees hybrid working materially improves their work-life balance and offering this flexibility is critical to attract and retain the best talent. If an employee values pausing work from time to time to attend to other activities e.g. exercise, family, domestic and then make up later on, then that too could be a valuable ‘benefit in kind’.

However this needs to be a two-way street. There is increasing consensus that certain actives are best performed in-person, together (Amazon – 3 day week) and variable hours are ideally a win-win for all parties concerned. Give and take is the name of the game. If it isn’t working then there are probably underlying cultural issues to address.

Stories

Stories are important because they tell us about who we are, where we come from, where we are going and why we are going there. Post-Covid, we have the opportunity to create new stories. However, this means consciously creating them, deciding who are the ‘main characters’ of the stories, and what morals, messages and questions do we want those stories to offer.

Stories are most effective when based around shared experiences. Look at Automattic Inc, the owner and operator of WordPress which supports this website and millions of others like it. Almost all of their 2,000 employees in 97 countries work remotely. In light of this geographic dispersion, founder Matt Mullenweg recognised the need to periodically bring the company together, create connections and, most importantly, make stories.

A few times each year all employees gather in one location for a meaningful amount of time. When they do, the company makes sure that alongside strategy presentations, project meetings and a multitude of business discussions, they create stories – because that’s what people remember. In this way, Automattic creates a cultural narrative based on a shared experience. 

Symbols

In this sense, symbols are artefacts that hold the power of something important to the culture of the organisation. They act as a tangible resource that enables us to connect with something that is intangible. They can represent a memory, an idea, a value, a hope that is part of the organisational story.

The question here is – ‘What are the symbols of your organisation and what do they mean?’

Nations have flags, officials often have uniforms, sports teams have mascots. In our homes we have sentimental items that represent moments that matter to us. Symbols remind us of our place in the family of things.

Most corporations could do more to leverage the power of symbolism. As a result, many confuse symbols with their company logo and miss an opportunity to communicate the company culture.

At Goldcrest Partners, we believe that symbols are more important than ever with dispersed working habits. Since an office building is no longer the thing that binds us, finding other ways to share symbolic common ground is more important than ever.

Organisational structures

These are the formal structures and hierarchy of an organisation, as well as the informal routes to get things done. In our experience, many organisations can get bogged down looking to update or change their formal structures while not paying enough attention to the informal.

Formal structures are important to provide the infrastructure of an organisation, however they are by definition rigid, can take time to build and it can be disruptive and expensive to change them. They are well complemented by informal channels that fill in the gaps and get things done quickly.

Culture is a great way of encouraging informal engagement to support hybrid working. Things are changing more quickly than formal structures are able. Therefore we need to adapt and to get things done in the meantime.

Power structures

This refers to how people have the power and influence to get things done. Again, it is useful to consider both formal power, which accrues to a specific role, and also informal power, which is a more about influence and often described as “soft” but is no less effective.

Informal power structures reflect the non-hierarchical relationships that are valuable in communicating messages and accomplishing tasks. They are more important than ever when hybrid working and benefit from being nurtured and cultivated to align efforts and motivate others.

Another phrase to describe the most influential people within an organisation is “culture carriers”. If you can identify your “culture carriers” they can help you influence across your team or the organisation with their impactful voice.

Culture is key to effective hybrid working

Ultimately, organisations either have a culture the leadership consciously craft or ended up with one by accident. We believe that culture is key to effective hybrid working and will be on the agenda for all successful organisations of the future.

Calibration, not conviction

In investment management, conviction is often treated as a defining virtue. Strong views, decisive language and visible confidence can create momentum in meetings and reassurance in uncertain markets. In a profession built around judgement under ambiguity, that confidence in conviction can be valuable.

Investment culture therefore tends to admire conviction. There is a reason for that. Markets do not reward endless caution, and many good ideas feel uncomfortable at the point of purchase. 

Yet conviction and quality are not the same thing. The more important skill is not simply having conviction, but knowing when it is warranted, how strongly it is warranted and what action it should translate into. 

In short, it is calibration, not conviction, that should be an investor’s goal. 

Calibration means matching confidence to reality. It is the discipline of knowing how much you should believe, how much uncertainty still sits around the case and how that should affect position size and timing. In practice, that is a more useful skill than simply sounding assured.

In fact, many investment mistakes are not caused by weak ideas. They are caused by too much certainty wrapped around decent ideas. An investor may be broadly right about direction, but wrong about the strength of the edge, the timing, the downside or the amount of capital the idea deserves. That’s a calibration problem.

This is where investing becomes more than just having opinions. It is not enough to think something is attractive. You also need to ask: how attractive is it, how clear is the edge, what could go wrong and what size of position does that justify? Those are less glamorous questions, but they are usually the ones that protect returns.

Good investors tend to be more precise here than dramatic. They do not confuse confidence with quality. They ask what must be true for the thesis to hold. They think about what would weaken the case. They notice when they are reacting to price rather than evidence. And they are more comfortable than most with saying, “There may be something here, but the edge is not strong enough yet.”

That last point matters. In many teams, “no edge” sounds timid. In truth, it is often a sign of maturity. Knowing when not to force conviction is part of the job.

Over time, the investors who last are usually not the loudest. They are the ones who repeatedly align belief, sizing and behaviour with the actual quality of the opportunity in front of them.

Conviction has its place. But in the long run, calibration is what makes it useful.

Framing the question before seeking the answer

Anyone who has worked in financial services long enough will be familiar with the moment where a share’s price is substantially down and its guidance has been cut. The obvious question then asked is: “Is this now a buying opportunity?”. 

While understandable, that question is often the wrong starting point.

Because, while it pulls a team straight towards action, it assumes the price move is the main event and that the task is to decide whether to respond. A better question might be: what has actually changed in the economics of the business, what has not and is the market now misreading that reality?

That may sound like a small difference. But it’s not. In investing, the way a problem is framed shapes the quality of the thinking that follows. A poor frame can push people towards speed, false certainty or the wrong evidence. A good one slows the rush just enough to make sure the team is solving the right problem.

This matters because many investment debates go wrong before the analysis has really begun. People can disagree intelligently, yet still be answering different questions. One person thinks it is a valuation issue. Another thinks it is a quality issue. A third thinks it is about management credibility. The discussion sounds lively, but the framing is unstable.

The best investors are often better at this than they first appear. They are not simply cleverer analysts. They are careful about naming the decision. For instance, is this a broken thesis, a temporary dislocation, a cyclical reset, or a better business now available at a more sensible price? Each one demands a different type of evidence, a different holding period and a different level of conviction.

There is also a behavioural point here. Under pressure, people like to collapse uncertainty quickly. When markets move and prices gap, the team feels the need to have a view. But urgency is not always a sign that the decision is ready. Sometimes it is just a sign of discomfort.

A useful discipline is to pause and ask a few basic questions before the debate gets going. Questions such as: what are we really deciding? What would have to be true for this to work? What type of opportunity is this? What evidence would tell us we have framed it wrongly?

In investing, better decisions often begin with a better question. It’s not over-complicating the job. It is doing the first part properly. That is easy to say and surprisingly hard to do. But when teams get it right, the rest of the discussion tends to improve with it.

Integrating culture post-acquisition

The Brief

The client was a FTSE 250 asset manager, UK-based but highly acquisitive globally. Recent acquisitions were an operational and financial success but the cultural integration was proving a challenge. There was urgency to address this issue as client surveys reported it was impacting their experience. The task was to unify the organisation and build a network of connections between these different tribes. There were multiple areas of focus and a need to be efficient considering the time pressure.

The Engagement

We began by creating 12 cross-functional cohorts of peers from right across the business (legacy and new business areas). We gathered these groups for two-day offsites over 18 months to build a cohesive network of teams. The work addressed:

• The business case for better integration and collaboration

• How high-performing teams and organisations work and how we benchmark

• Self-assessment psychometrics to understand our individual approach to collaboration

• Relaxation time and activities to build stronger relationships, deepen mutual understanding, share knowledge, and build social glue.

The Outcome

There was initial reluctance from some, which we acknowledged and worked with, and pockets of enthusiasm, which we leveraged as the early adopters of change. As time went on, the group largely unified as initial fears were proven unfounded and the benefits of the process were recognised.

After 18 months, the results were terrific. Most participants were aligned and committed. This led to new networks of relationships, better communication and collaboration, and improved client experience.

Many years later now, several cohorts still meet for an annual reunion, such was the strength of the bonds forged.

Globalising an asset management business

The Brief

A UK Asset Management firm with an international presence planned to grow further and, in doing so, wanted to develop a truly global model of working. The aim was to shift from a centralised model of decision-making to a decentralised global model where decisions were made in the right location by the right people with knowledge of the markets, clients, and solutions. The premise was this would enable better decisions to be made and the organisation to move more quickly.

It was appreciated that this was a significant shift in both strategy and culture and the firm planned this on a 5-year horizon. It was also clear that the solution would be multifaceted and involve inorganic activity, change in reporting lines and a significant investment in technology. Our role was to work with the CEO and HRD on the people and culture elements.

The Engagement

There are many different aspects to globalising an asset management business, the highlights were:

Develop a global leadership conference, to be held outside the UK for the senior leaders in the business.  This became an annual event and was critical for building relationships and empowering new decision makers.

Develop and deliver a global strategy roadshow to all regional executive committee members, with the purpose of communicating the group strategy and establishing alignment. The delivery was consistent in structure and message, with allowance for discussion and debate.

Enhanced leadership development through designing and delivering a series of enhanced leadership development programmes for global leaders focusing on empowerment, autonomy and decision-making.

The Outcome

The firm is operating more effectively on the global stage. This was a huge project involving all aspects of the client’s business. However, we can say with pride that our part significantly contributed to the overall success of the strategy.

Design and facilitation of a global working conference

The Brief

The client wanted to bring together all its managing directors (c.80 people) from across Europe for its first in-person gathering in 5 years. Much had changed in that time, however. Due to various factors the opportunity to bring everyone together had not occurred. The cohort was mixed, with many recent joiners but the common theme was an absence on in-person connection.

The aim of the 2-day conference was 2-fold: Open debate about critical strategic decisions, inviting ideas and generating buy-in; build the network across the MD population to encourage collaboration and cross-selling.

The Engagement

Goldcrest was engaged to both co-design and to facilitate the conference.  Our key stakeholder was the CEO and we collaborated to help draft their opening session to set the tone. Additionally, we worked with the CFO, sector leads and others to coach them through the creation and delivery of their sessions.

The Outcome

The result was a highly engaged and enthused MD population with tangible messages to take back to their teams.  Some acknowledged that they arrived sceptical of such gatherings but left positive and delighted with the quality of the presentations, the conversation, the venue and the facilitation.

Engaging senior managers through empowerment and autonomy

The Brief

The client’s executive committee recognised the way to harness the power of the organisation was by engaging more effectively with the senior management level. The programme would aim to activate their potential by creating an aligned and motivated cohort who not only felt empowered but knew what being empowered meant. The goal was to devolve responsibilities and decision-making to the part of the organisation where the expertise existed and free up the executive committee to focus more on the strategic issues requiring urgent attention.

The Engagement

The engagement was to commence a discovery phase, which allowed us to understand the organisational culture and identify the leadership strengths and gaps of the senior manager team. We used this time to get to know participants and learn what they felt was important to address. The solution we designed was a multi-modular programme over eight months with supported peer coaching and daily application to help put the learnings into practice and embed behavioural change. The executive committee played a vital role through their internal engagement and endorsement of the programme, understanding the change required of them and underpinning a successful outcome.

The Outcome

The programme ran for three iterations with 36 senior managers over a two-year period. There was a significant improvement in engagement scores from this population and a marked increase in collaboration levels across this group. The executive committee felt more connected to this cohort and were able to delegate more significant decisions, freeing up time for strategic thinking.

Creating a culture for the next chapter of growth

The Brief

Our client was a leading UK wealth management firm. The new CEO engaged us early in their tenure to help them define the existing culture, establish the desired future culture and support in that change journey.

The Engagement

Our solution was multi-faceted. Initially we needed to get to know the organisation and earn the trust of key players. Once that trust was built, we were able to explore the lived experience through a series of workshops, focus groups and one-to-one conversations. We started concurrently at the executive committee and the new entry levels of the organisation, working our way into the centre. It was vital to identify the individuals who had informal influence and were positive culture carriers and engage them early.

The Outcome

Over a period of six months, we built a picture of what worked well and what could be changed. We supported them to create a new set of values, helped roll them out and give them meaning. Finally, we developed a programme to build the senior management’s leadership capabilities and bind them together as a collaborative layer.

Cultural reset to achieve renewed purpose

The Brief

The client was a mid-cap Bank. Their executive committee was a blend of long-serving individuals and newer joiners, and our mandate was to discover the organisational culture needed to achieve its renewed purpose.

The client was aware that culture is shaped by many factors and that the tone from the top is vital. The CEO and HRD recognised the need to gather the team together, debate the issues, understand individual views and ultimately agree on a way forward. They asked Goldcrest Partners to design and facilitate an open and robust process to achieve these goals.

The Engagement

The engagement was to initially get to meet the participants individually, ensure we were known to them, and start building trust between our facilitators and team members. This allowed us to gauge opinions and ensure the agenda and discussion were as inclusive and engaging as possible.

Following these exploratory conversations, we designed a two-day offsite meeting. The agenda was a blend of exploration around the cultural issues, either enabling or hindering effective business, along with very practical actions for the group and each individual executive. Unsurprisingly, some departments were more advanced than others, and this provided the opportunity for executives to share best practices with one another.

The Outcome

The result was a clear view of areas of concern and areas of strength across the organisation. This insight allowed the desired culture to be identified and worked towards. We continue to work with the client at an individual, team and organisational level to continue development and embed the learnings in the business.