Why Your Culture Is More Important Than Your SEO - Sean Butcher

“What do
you do
here?”
- John F. Kennedy
#BrightonSEO | @seanbutcher

“I’m helping
to put a man
on the
moon”
- NASA janitor

Why your culture is
more important than
your SEO

“Culture eats
strategy for
breakfast” -
Peter Drucker, 2000

“Group culture is one of the
most powerful forces on the
planet. A strong culture
increases net income 765%
over 10 years, according to a
Harvard study of more than
200 companies.”
- Daniel Coyle, The Culture Code

Anyone can copy
your strategy.
Nobody can copy
your culture.

You can’t just
expect your
‘stars’ to perform

Strategy
Capability Culture

What ‘culture’ isn’t

Foosball /
ping-pong /
pool tables

Free tea /
coffee / “pizza
Fridays”

Private
healthcare /
other paid-for
“perk”

● The best tools to work with
● Meaningful connections
● A culture of collaboration
● Leaders who are transparent and
value teamwork.
High performing team study: https://slack.com/intl/en-gb/blog/collaboration/culture-collaboration-work

Also what culture isn’t
● Only about “having fun”
● “Work hard - play hard”
● An excuse to avoid
accountability
● An excuse for poor
performance

High
performance
Caring,
empathy,
safety
Finding the right balance

Culture is
underpinned
by your
values

Values are the
unwritten
behaviours that
deﬁne your
organisation

They’re
everything
beneath the
surface

And they can’t
be “forced”
onto people

They already
exist in your
team… You just
need to know
where to look

www.bluearray.co.uk | @bluearrayseo
Exercise 1
Uncover...
● What you stand for
● What you deem
important
● What makes you unique

Exercise 2
Uncover...
● The traits you like in
others
● Your favourite
characteristics in your
colleagues

Everyone
should “own”
the values

They should be a part
of everything you do…
● Interactions
● Recruitment
● Progression
● Promotions

Values should
be
demonstrated
& celebrated

Build
progression
around desired
behaviours

What makes a
good culture?

There’s no
“right” or
“wrong”
answer (sorry)

My 4 key
components
● Psychological safety
● Intrinsic motivation
● Values-based recruitment
● Work-life balance

#BrightonSEO | @seanbutcher | @bluearrayseo
Psychological
“safety”

“Fear is the enemy
of ﬂourishing”
- Amy Edmonson, The Fearless
Organization

“Psychological safety is
a climate in which
people are comfortable
expressing and being
themselves”
- Amy Edmonson, The Fearless
Organization

Fear of
being
judged

Fear of
speaking
up

Fear inhibits
creativity and
reduces
effectiveness

2017 Gallup poll found
only 3 in 10 employees
strongly agreed with:
“My opinions count at
work”
https://www.clickboarding.com/how-to-improve-employee-engagement-make-their-o
pinions-count/

Yet, modern
workplaces
are built on
ideas

Google ranked
Psychological Safety
as the #1 factor in their
“What makes a Google
team effective?” study
https://rework.withgoogle.com/blog/ﬁve-keys-to-a-succ
essful-google-team/

Intrinsic
motivation
Demonstrate
this from the
top

Increasing safety
● Show vulnerability
● Ask for help
● Admit mistakes
● Ask for and act on feedback
● Reward effort

Intrinsic
motivation

“Intrinsic motivation is
engaging in a behaviour
because it’s personally
rewarding, not for an
external reward”
- Daniel Pink, Drive

MONEY
DOESN’T
=
HAPPINESS

www.bluearray.co.uk | @bluearrayseo | sean@bluearray.co.uk

#BrightonSEO | @seanbutcher | @bluearrayseo
Autonomy
1: Autonomy

Basic human
desire to have
control of
your own life

“Researchers at Cornell University
studied 320 small business, half of
which granted workers autonomy,
the other half relying on top-down
direction.
The businesses that offered
autonomy grew at four times the
rate of the control-oriented ﬁrms,
and had one-third the turnover.”

Put trust in
people to
deliver

“A strong culture will continue to inﬂuence
workers’ behaviours even if no one is
watching.
If a company has a strong culture, it will
continue to dictate how people work even
if everything happens virtually. Strong
cultures (...) explain why you do what you
do, even when no one is watching.”
https://www.peoplemanagement.co.uk/voices/comment/what-covid-h
as-taught-us-about-culture-and-what-needs-to-change

Building discipline
● A ‘culture of discipline’ isn’t
being a ‘tyrannical
disciplinarian’
● It gives freedom & responsibility
within a framework
● Bring in self-disciplined people
that are determined to fulﬁll
their responsibilities

Mastery
2: Mastery

Control =
Compliance
Autonomy =
Engagement

Engagement

Engagement
Flow

Offer the right
kind of
challenges
(Goldilocks Zone)

Engagement
Flow
Mastery

PDPs &
objectives

3: Purpose

“The most deeply
motivated people - not
to mention those who
are most productive and
satisﬁed - hitch their
desires to a cause larger
than themselves” -
Daniel Pink

Provide
transparency
about company
targets and
performance

Tie team and
individual goals
into what
matters to the
company

Recruitment

Adopt values-led
recruitment
practices

Different personalities
doesn’t = different
values

Skills are
important

But skills mean
nothing with the
wrong attitude

Balance &
wellbeing

Make it OK to
not be all about
work

See people as
people

Poor mental
health costs UK
employers
£45billion per year
https://www.breathehr.com/blog/topic/mental-health/poor-menta
l-health-is-costing-uk-employers-45-billion

Top three benefits
of flexible working:
● Work-life balance (54%)
● Reduction of stress (29%)
● Staying with current
employer (28%)
https://www.cipd.co.uk/knowledge/fundamentals/relations/flexible-
working/factsheet

Work life balance =
increased
engagement,
loyalty and
productivity

Look for people
that have active
interests
outside of work

Look after your
people and
good things will
happen

So what are our values?

Blue Array’s core values
https://www.bluearray.co.uk/company-values/

Our average
staff turnover
rate in 2019 was
<4%

What does your
culture look like?

Thank you

Why Your Culture Is More Important Than Your SEO - Sean Butcher

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