There's so many places to start your culture efforts - how do you know where to start?
Having done this work for over 14 years we know no matter where you’re starting from in your efforts to create a thriving workplace culture, here’s where you can begin:
- Pause, reflect, and take it 3 steps deeper. Yes, the very first thing we recommend is to pause and reflect. Chances are you’re in the hustle and grind and haven’t paused to really take a moment and ask yourself, “What’s really at the source of our current culture successes and challenges?” Not the topical, first-layer answers but the ones underneath those. For example we had a CEO who said at the heart of their culture challenges was a team who was 1) overwhelmed because 2) high turnover meant there weren’t enough people accomplishing the work. When we asked her to reflect on the source of the turnover, she shared 3) concerns about leadership, lack of bandwidth for training, and rampant gossip. When we asked her to look below that layer, she saw that 4) a lack of boundaries was the common denominator. That was the right area to focus on to make the difference.
- Don’t fix anything—yet. When it comes to culture efforts we tend to go into “fix-it” mode and pride ourselves on “taking action.” However, we have learned over many years working with lots of teams that often what’s most needed is NOT more doing. Usually what is needed is more intentionality about the way each team member is showing up. Let go of well-intentioned projects and initiatives that simply create more work with little real impact. Look instead at how your team members are being - with one another, with clients, with the work. This can point you to the core of your culture challenges and where doing something will mean everything.
- Get a true read. Rather than moving forward based on your assumptions, guesses, and “I think” that are often informed by some of the loudest voices on your team, get a true read on your culture from your entire team. A really good culture survey garners at least an 80%+ response rate - without coercion. (Our average is an impressive 94%.) Look at your org chart, and ask yourself: Have you heard from everyone? What did they say?
- Conduct a Clean Slate Meeting. One of the most common mistakes we see organizations make in their culture efforts is they fail to effectively address the current state of culture affairs before working towards a new vision. (It’s like putting whip cream on top of mud.) You can’t tell people to “let go of the past” or to “just move on” - they will dig their heels in deeper. Instead conduct a Clean Slate Meeting to get everything out in the open and completed so you can genuinely have a healthy clear foundation to start from. [Pro tip: You only get one shot to do this well - so it’s critical to really think through the steps on this one. If you would like some help, just reach out to us as we have a clear, proven, step-by-step process we can walk you through and customize for your organization.]
A thriving culture isn’t just a lofty ideal—it’s an achievable reality. By starting with these four aligned actions, you can lay a solid foundation for meaningful cultural transformation, and find your next right steps to get there.
