By Ed Zuber 



I first visited St. Paul, Minnesota in the fall of 2009.  The weather was warm and pleasant, and I happily explored the streets and shops in my free time.  By the time I’d left, I’d formed some pretty solid opinions about what it might be like to live in St. Paul. 

When I returned to Minneapolis’ twin this winter, something quite unexpected happened.  As I stepped confidently from the doors of the airport terminal, taking a deep breath of the fresh, sunlit Minnesota air, something hit me in the chest.  As one might guess, I was a little disoriented.  I looked around, but I didn’t see anything that might have hit me.  Eventually I realized what was happening.  Something was hitting me inside my chest.

As it turns out, the fresh Minnesota air was quite a bit fresher than I expected, and working out on my lungs.  It was COLD.  It was 2°F, roughly 40° colder than when I departed the Appalachian mountains of northeast Pennsylvania, just a few hours ago.  How was this possible?  For drama, I compared my boarding pass to the airport signage.  I was indeed in the right place.

It’s not as though I haven’t been in cold weather before.  I’ve happily chased snow and cold into northern Vermont, but that was for a good, recreational reason.  More importantly, I’d drive gradually into the cold, mentally prepared to slide down cold and windy mountains strapped to a board, and physically prepared with the proper gear.  This was different.  I was just wearing a business suit and not at all expecting such a swing in temperature.  It had caught me off guard, and my attention was drawn directly to it.

The tagline, prominently displayed on the official website of the city of St. Paul, suggests that St. Paul is “the most livable city in America.”  As a marketer, I should have been suspicious from the start.  That’s not a strong claim that says there is something authentic, different, and great about St. Paul.  “Livable” sounds a lot like “tolerable” and suggests that they know it’s cold there in the winter and would prefer if newcomers didn’t know that fact.  In fact, St. Paul’s climate has one of the greatest ranges of temperature on earth, with a record high of 105°F and a record low of -32°F.  That’s a 137° swing!

For the remainder of the trip, I made copious use of the indoor walkways, which connect St. Paul’s vital commercial organs with free-flowing arteries.  When I did go outside, it was a constant exercise in not allowing too much skin exposure.  By the time I was leaving town, my opinions about what it might be like to live in St. Paul had been challenged and summarily reset.  My cab driver, a seasoned and informed gentleman, told me that he had moved to St. Paul from Los Angeles some 30 years prior.  When I asked him what he thought about the cold compared to what he was used to, he shrugged his shoulders and said, “You get used to it.  You should have been here on Monday when it didn’t get above zero.”

This statement represents an inspirational side and a simultaneously depressing side to our humanity.  On one hand, individuals and groups have challenged and endured all manner of conditions to achieve a dream.  On the other hand, humans get used to living with conditions that we either simply don’t like or are, in fact, objectively bad for us.

Think about your job.  Do you do things you enjoy and support what you want to be as a person, or are you coasting?  Is there a positive culture or climate at your organization?  What’s the state of morale?  Are you having any fun or just enduring?  Is it easy to interact with your coworkers; do they “get” you?  Participants in a merger are painfully aware of culture differences.  From the outside, what do two sets of mission and vision statements look like when they are reworked or simply summed?  What kind of experience will customers expect when they interact with this new company or brand?  While Minneapolis and St. Paul are lumped together as the “Twin Cities,” locals will tell you that they are quite different.

Look carefully around you.  Take your time.  How many stains or messes on your desk or walls were you once aware of, and now you no longer notice?  When workers return to a windowless cube after a week’s vacation, they are painfully reminded of their environment.  Sometimes these conditions disappear to us because we’ve gotten used to them, but the way we cope with these situations remain, and those coping mechanisms are quite visible to others.  When people ask you about work, what do you tell them?  What content do you post on social media sites?  When people visit your workplace, what things will they notice that you no longer notice?  What opinions are they forming about your organization, and is that good or bad news for your organization?

Organizational climate is powerful, especially for those who suddenly step into that climate.  Everyone in an organization shapes that culture, and we can collectively control how enjoyable and productive it is to be there.  Taken a step further, with some coordination, an organization can create and support a culture that not only enables an engaged workforce, but an environment and a functionality that tells all its visitors what is authentic, different, and great about the organization.  Customers, prospects, and all manner of influencers will like that.  Will you be a brand advocate and shape a positive and relevant culture around you at work, or will you let the climate shape who you are?

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