Honor the past

- Getting where you want to go depends largely on knowing where you stand today. A few years ago, in a previous role, I co-founded an education startup. It was a nonprofit that taught leadership to teens and we did this through challenge and service. It was a really exciting time. An important lesson I learned in founding that company was that despite the excitement, we had trouble lining up how we, the team, actually got work done. Simply put, we did not have clear expectations defined. So here's what we did. We stepped back from the strategic planning. We took time to meet together through several offsite meetings. And we worked hard to identify the times we were most productive in the past. We talked about our work style, our work-life balance, we shared how we had interacted with peers in the past. Basically we defined our normals, our cultural expectations. By sharing these differences with each other, we were able to honor those differences and recognize what had worked for each other in the past before we set out to create a new future together. Now, culture is simply how we do life together. And as you set out to build a great company culture, you should start by honoring the past, the way people have done things in the past. This can be a challenging process so I've got a few tips to help you through it. First, stay curious. Let's imagine you met everyone on your team at a trail head. They all show up on time, fully equipped and ready for the journey. Each team member has their backpack loaded with skills, expectations, routines, and habits. Now you're going to invite your team to share their past experiences, to set down the pack and reveal what they have inside it. This will require some vulnerability as the team acknowledges and articulates their own cultural expectations. But by staying curious, you'll be able to recognize and focus on shared expectations, both good and bad. Second, highlight areas for growth. People are pretty bad at knowing what they want. I think it was Henry Ford who said something like, "If I asked people what they wanted, they would've answered faster horses." Your team is going to be much better at identifying what they've done in the past and what hasn't worked for them. Draw these ideas out so you can design with these challenges in mind. Third, you're going to want to make a keep, drop and add list. Once the team has shared their past experiences and you've called out your teams' shared expectations and areas for growth, list out what your team really wants to pack for the adventure. It's okay to leave some old baggage at the proverbial trail head, especially now that you've taken time to acknowledge and articulate it. Finally, if you didn't realize this already, this is a team activity. Culture is shared and creating it collaboratively is the simplest way to foster buy-in. Are you ready to get started? Take a few minutes right now to think about the cultural expectations you carry in your pack from past work settings and from your home life. Make your list.