Article contributed by Dr. Ivan Misner.
BNI’s Culture
There is one overriding principal in every business. Culture eats strategy for breakfast. If you’re part of an organisation that has a powerful strategy but a marginal culture you’ll fail. If you’re part of an organisation with a strong culture but a marginal strategy you’ll succeed. And if you’re part of an organisation that has a that has a really strong culture and a great strategy you’ll beat your competition every day of the week.
Culture is the key! It is the most important thing in an organisation and it applies to all levels, from the top of the organisation all the way down.
Within BNI the culture of a chapter determines how successful that group will be. Rules, regulations and operating standards are important of course, because you have to have systems in place to guide activities.
But culture is the factor that stands above all others. Having a positive supportive culture based on a core philosophy of helping other people is what makes BNI unique in its field. It’s one of the reasons why we’re the largest networking organisation in the world. Culture is the way we communicate inside and outside the organisation. Culture is created by our values. What are our core values in BNI, here they are in no particular order of importance, except the first.
BNI’s Core Values
- Givers Gain – You have to be willing to give people business if you hope to get business in return. Givers Gain is a standard that you apply to yourself and to your dealings with other people. It is the guiding principal or philosophy for BNI.
- Building Relationships – Networking is more about farming than it is about hunting. It’s all about building strong professional relationships within a structured environment.
- Life Long Learning – Ongoing education is important in any field, however, when it comes to networking we don’t teach networking in colleges and universities anywhere in the world, but we do in BNI. If you are willing, we have the content.
- Traditions plus Innovation – I know, this sounds like a paradox how can you focus on both. While traditions tell us who we are today as an organisation, innovation tells us who we can become as an organisation. We value both in BNI.
- Positive Attitude – I’ve been doing this long enough to know that most people want to do business with people who have a positive and supportive attitude. It’s important to apply this core value throughout every area of the organisation.
- Accountability – One of the strengths of a networking group is that most of the members are friends. One of the weaknesses of a networking group is that most of the members are friends. Friends don’t always like to hold friends accountable, but success in business requires accountability. Our best chapters know that and apply that.
- Recognition – From day one in BNI I understood that recognition was an important element in a critical organisational value to a successful BNI group. Affective recognition is so important in BNI.
Core values are the foundation of any successful organisation. If we want people to have a great member experience then everything we do needs to revolve around these core values of the organisation.
Values are the DNA of a company. Someone can copy a system or a process but the one thing they can’t copy is culture. If you’re going to create brand that gives a great experience you have to be true to your core values. These are our 7 core values in BNI.
If all the people in an organisation row in the same direction, that organisation can dominate any industry, in any market, against any competition, at any time. BNI has dominated its industry in almost every market against all the competition for decades. It has done so because of a shared vision and a shared implementation of that vision through our core values.
This article is based on Ivan Misner’s overview video for our BNI Core Values series. Every 3-4 weeks we will take a few moments to learn more about each of our 7 core values either by watching the next video or in another article such as this one. The next video/article in the series spends a few minutes talking about our principal core value Givers Gain.
