If you’ve been in the workforce for some time, most probably, you have already learned how important workplace culture is to your well-being and performance.
And did you know?
Culture isn’t a vibe.
From a Fast Company article, “Culture is the environment in which your strategy and your brand thrives or dies a slow death.“
I can remember when I was asked for my prayer request, I responded with good workplace culture. Why? At the time, I don’t quite know how to express the value of workplace culture. Yet, somehow, I know deep down that the workplace culture can either make or break me as an employee.
From the article, the significant benefits that come from a vibrant and alive culture are:
- Focus: Aligns the entire company towards achieving its vision, mission, and goals.
- Motivation: Builds higher employee motivation and loyalty.
- Connection: Builds team cohesiveness among the company’s various departments and divisions.
- Cohesion: Builds consistency and encourages coordination and control within the company.
- Spirit: Shapes employee behavior at work, enabling the organization to be more efficient and alive.
However, a workplace culture like this doesn’t just happen overnight. According to Shawn Parr, “building a strong culture takes hard work and true commitment.”
From the article, here are some very basic building blocks to consider when building a strong culture:
1. Dynamic and engaged leadership
A vibrant culture is organic and evolving. It is fueled and inspired by leadership that is actively involved and informed about the realities of the business. They genuinely care about the company’s role in the world and are passionately engaged. They are great communicators and motivators who set out a clearly communicated vision, mission, values, and goals and create an environment for them to come alive.
2. Living values
It’s one thing to have beliefs and values spelled out in a frame in the conference room. It’s another thing to have genuine and memorable beliefs that are directional, alive and modeled throughout the organization daily. It’s important that departments and individuals are motivated and measured against the way they model the values. And, if you want a values-driven culture, hire people using the values as a filter. If you want your company to embody the culture, empower people and ensure every department understands what’s expected. Don’t just list your company’s values in PowerPoints; bring them to life in people, products, spaces, at events, and in communication.
3. Responsibility and accountability
Strong cultures empower their people, they recognize their talents, and give them a very clear role with responsibilities they’re accountable for. It’s amazing how basic this is, but how absent the principle is in many businesses.
4. Celebrate success and failure
Most companies that run at speed often forget to celebrate their victories both big and small, and they rarely have time or the humility to acknowledge and learn from their failures. Celebrate both your victories and failures in your own unique way, but share them and share them often.
Culture cannot be manufactured. It has to be genuinely nurtured by everyone from the CEO down.
Culture Eats Strategy For Lunch
jessa 