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Last year Donald Trump told the world that he would build “the greatest wall you’ve ever seen” to stop the people he deems as threatening or “non fitting” from entering and disrupting his ideal American culture.

In recent years, HR and business leaders have been talking increasingly more about cultural fit in the context of organisations. Perhaps you’re a people leader, perhaps you work in HR, or maybe you're a recruitment partner hunting for talented individuals who will fit into a culture depicted to you by a hiring manager. Either way it’s likely that most of us have made judgements at some point about someone “just not being a cultural fit” for an organisation.

Has our tunnel-vision focus on creating the perfect culture in organisations has been taken so far that it’s actually crippling business growth? Put another way, have we built walls in an attempt to prevent people who have different values, perspectives and approaches from entering our business in case they rock the boat and disrupt our culture too much?

Let’s start with cultural fit...

What is cultural fit anyway? The truth is, there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of consensus around the definition. Michael Watkins recently analysed a broad variety of opinions that people held through a discussion on LinkedIn. Some thought of culture as a set of recognisable patterns of behaviour. Others talked of a sense of “shared awareness and understanding” amongst employees. One person’s viewpoint conveyed culture as a conceptualisation that “promotes and reinforces ‘right’ thinking whilst sanctioning ‘wrong’ thinking”. There were some very thought-provoking opinions.

Jumping back to Mr Trump, the newly elected US President appears to have a very strong opinion on how Americans typically behave and how outsiders should, therefore, behave in order to be welcomed into his idealistic culture. To illustrate, Trump recently confessed his disappointment in the communication style of a group of non-Americans in his speech: "When these people walk into the room they don't say, 'Oh hello, how's the weather? It's so beautiful outside. How are the Yankees doing?.' They say, 'We want deal!'". It's safe to assume that Trump did not deem these people as a good cultural fit for America.

So in a business context when we assess a person’s cultural fit, what criteria are we measuring them against? What questions are we asking ourselves about their behaviours, their communication styles, their values? What judgements are we making that lead us to decide that they are “not a fit”? What are we predicting about the impact that they will have on our business objectives? Are we worried that they might threaten the other employees, or that they will create conflict?

Have you built a wall around your business?

With all the recent attention on the cultural-fit phenomenon, business leaders and HR practitioners have at times appeared wary of bringing people into their teams who might disrupt their organisational culture. As a result, have we inadvertently built walls around our businesses? Perhaps we hope that these walls will keep the peace and reduce unwanted conflict. Is it possible however that stifling conflict is partly responsible for stagnating business growth?

Trump's recent campaign tapped into the powerful human emotion of fear. Fear of immigrants from different cultures with different values and different ideals. He persuaded a frighteningly high percentage of Americans that these outsiders would all bring danger and “threaten our very way of life”.

Interestingly more than 10% of the Forbes 400 are in fact immigrants (14 now richer than Mr Trump himself). Goldschein and Feloni recently put a few individuals under the spotlight: Do Won Chang (founder and CEO of retail clothing giant Forever 21) moved to the USA from Korea starting out as a cleaner and petrol station attendant. From these humble beginnings Chang has since established what is now a $4.4B global business. Similarly Jan Koum, (co-founder of messaging platform Whatsapp), migrated to the USA from Ukraine aged 16 with his family who had to get by on government food vouchers when they arrived. Soon Jan’s business idea had grown so successfully that Facebook put in an offer and bought it for $19B. Needless to say it seems there is little to question about the contribution that these newcomers have made to the US economy.

The recruitment business partner’s evolving role...

The role of a recruitment business partner is becoming less about filling vacancies and more about understanding business goals whilst helping to determine the talent that will enable the business to achieve those objectives. If cultural fit comes up high on the hiring manager's list of requirements, perhaps this is a valuable opportunity for the recruitment partner to support manager in unpacking their existing notion of cultural fit thereby further distilling the talent gaps. It's becoming increasingly important for recruitment partners to ask the types of questions mentioned above to ensure that businesses are not missing out on top talent.

Could there be advantages to hiring someone with a completely contrasting way of thinking to achieve a business goal?

A dynamic ever-evolving culture...

Studies have shown that cultural diversity and even conflict can have a very positive impact on team performance. Working with “socially distinct newcomers” could actually drive organisational innovation and success. Steve Denning shows how problem solving can be much more effective when engaging people from a range of cultural backgrounds. He explains how diverse groups bring a rich assortment of differing skill sets, conflicting interpretations, fresh perspectives, paradoxical ideas, and vastly contrasting approaches which can amplify innovation. Perhaps conflict doesn’t have to be a bad thing after all.

Could solving complex business problems in a dynamic ever-evolving culture be the answer to increasing competitive advantage? Perhaps a culture where boundaries are expansively elastic, walls are tumbled down, and contrasting approaches are embraced, could be one of the secrets to accelerating business growth.

The talent pool would certainly expand!

We'd love to hear your thoughts...