Building Culture In Your Business is a Journey
When you talk to business owners who are proud of where their businesses are at, they often talk about the market, helping their customers achieve their goals, and their employees. They point to the people, their actions, and how they rise above during crucial moments. Sometimes they’ll refer to this as having a great culture where everyone is willing to go above and beyond (i.e. giving 110%), fill in for others who are out of the office for various reasons (being team players), and having fun doing what they do best.
The question for everyone else is, how did they get there?
Here’s the reality – it wasn’t blind luck. These companies did many things the right way to get here. Some may have even been in a situation where things were bad, but they didn’t give up; they pivoted, planned, executed, and stayed true to the path they needed to be on to improve.
Why? Somewhere along the line, they realized the issues weren’t because:
- People didn’t want to work
- There weren’t good candidates out there
- They were the greatest things since sliced bread (can you imagine the days
when there WASN’T sliced bread? – oh, the horror)
Instead, they figured out that for every finger they were pointing, there were three fingers pointing back at themselves.
RECOGNIZE
Building (or rebuilding) company culture is a lot like planning a vacation or a trip. First you have to recognize you need one. Frankly, who doesn’t need a great vacation?
Understanding that you may have some challenges in fixing a problem (sales, service, quality manufacturing, engineering, process, etc.) within your work environment has to come first. Without identifying a challenge, how can you fix or improve it?
That’s not to say that there’s a glaring problem in every organization. Rather, it’s pointing out that your organization has room to grow and improve – to get better than you were yesterday.
MEASURE
Once the challenge is identified and acknowledged, you need to determine where you’re at – your benchmark. Like traveling from your closest airport, you need to know where you’re starting in order to figure out where you can go. This identification includes measuring and evaluating – not just “trusting your instincts.” Ask any seasoned sales leader and they’ll tell you that if you’re not going to measure it, there’s no point in doing it at all. Determining where you’re at will help you have a compass – where you start, where you’re heading, and how you’ll know you’ve been successful.
PLAN
Next comes the itinerary. On your journey, you need to plan for stops along the way. What things will you entertain or visit? What elements do you want to include to achieve those lofty goals? Are they tied
to your company values?
INVITE
Who’s coming on the journey? Some will challenge, some will oppose, but ultimately you’ve made the decision as the leader of the ‘family,’ that this trip is happening. Now, decide who are your strongest focus group participants. It’s not the people who are burying their heads in the sand – pretending issues will magically go away, or that potential problems don’t exist. It’s the people who see that a positive culture creates greater engagement and inclusivity. Culture helps people know how to act, especially when things are tough. When your engagement is on the rise, so are productivity and employee retention rates. Higher rates here make the business more profitable – less time retraining new people, less people taking on additional workload due to turnover, etc.
ACT
Now it’s time to get on the bus. Start executing the things your focus group planned on. Pivot, when necessary, but stay on the path – even if not everything goes as planned. You’re sure to have a ‘flat tire’ or delays. Remain calm and vigilant about staying on track to achieve those goals you set forth.
OBSERVE
Enjoy the ride. If you’ve planned well, this should be a great journey for you, your leaders, and your employees. Building an inclusive culture tied to your company values can be awe inspiring to watch. Learn from missteps, take notes, gather intel from the front lines, and continue to tweak and massage.
REPEAT
You’re not done. As with strategic planning, budgeting, goal setting, project management etc., you have to continue to plan for tomorrow. What’s the next trip you’re going on? How could you have made
this one better?
It takes some imagination of what’s possible. Sometimes, it takes some external perspective to help you see what you’ve accomplished, what opportunities you might be overlooking, and how you can continually improve this ongoing trip.
Building a sustainable culture is a challenge, you can’t win by playing the lottery or entering a contest. You have to invest the time, energy, and consistency in all phases. Company culture has a life of its own, and with each new employee you add something – their interests, ideas, perspectives, and connection to your mission, vision, and values.
How you and your leadership team carry these things out, especially when no one is looking, will determine how good your compass is on your journey to building a better culture. To learn more about how to strengthen your company’s culture visit: https://buildbetterculture.com/.