3 Ways to Navigate Culture in the Next Normal

Recentering & empowering your organisation in this period of massive change.

This has been an extremely different time and it calls for a very different response. In peace time, it’s easy to go about our business without making constant references to the Mission and Values of our company. Sometimes it remains a really nice poster on the wall! However, when a crisis happens, the very core of the company is being challenged – tough decisions need to be made and many of the actions we take are unprecedented.

How can we successfully navigate and empower our organisation during these times? Our organisations today are in a very different emotional state as compared to pre pandemic times. There is a great deal of tentativeness today, where people are feeling unsure and insecure about the near and distant future. During such times, it is critical to go back to what you truly stand for – it’s important to recentre yourself to the Purpose, Values and Core belief system of your organisation.

This will be the compass that directs you and is a benchmark for decisions to be made. The language of the culture will be the vehicle to align, measure and transmit the desired organisational culture. Now, more than ever, culture is crucial to help us navigate these different times.

The very being of the organisation and its existence is being challenged constantly. In an environment that has produced a very different business context and challenge, how can we still embody the Purpose and Values of the organisation?

It’s time to go back to who we are and what we genuinely stand for.  Many changes have pushed our backs against the wall. The way to ‘attack’ the Next Normal is to focus on what really matters to us as an organisation and relentlessly use it to power us through.

How can we make the organisation more aware of the direction? How can we align everyone and seek direction from our core beliefs? How can we transmit and live our values as we work remotely and where the team or organisation don’t gather face to face? In this world of Zoom and in the virtual world where we say, “Can you hear me?”, most often, how can we live and breathe culture daily?

1. Micro Rituals - Tiny Culture Habits

Rituals are essential to culture building. With staff working in remote teams and a combination of face to face and Work From Home, these agreed set of actions definitely come to the forefront. The team being separated should not get in the way of us connecting with one another.

It can be as simple as having little virtual ‘roll calls’, focusing on one Value per week. When you have your morning meeting, one person can be assigned to share a story, experience or feedback related to the Value. There can also be monthly virtual ‘get togethers’ where food and drinks can be ordered and sent to the employees’ homes. When an organisation creates such habits and rituals, they create platforms for culture to brew. The Values of the organisation gradually permeate into the DNA, rather than just seen as a poster on the wall or mentioned in a very cursory manner during a half yearly town hall! 

2. Use Your Culture Language – Nagging Works!

Did your mother nag when you were growing up? Mine did! And you know what? I definitely do the same now and say the very same things to my kids! That’s the power of having a selected glossary of words that describe and embody the culture of your particular organisation. For example, when you receive feedback from your customers, relate the actions of the staff to the Values and the expected behaviours of the organisation. The more you repeatedly do this, it becomes your branded language that only your organisation truly understands.

3. Recognise and Reward On Culture Behaviour

Positive reinforcement works like a charm with kids. Does it work for adults? A resounding, ‘Yes!’. Call out behavior that is ‘on culture’ when you see it. It can be evident in the form of an email or how someone answered a question during a virtual meeting or even a kind act to help a colleague in trouble. I know of an organisation that has Sweet Fridays and specially ordered pastries on a Friday for the team and even had it delivered to the houses of those working from home! It was definitely aligned to their Value of Employee First.

These actions send a loud signal to what is desired and expected and after a period of time, it becomes the way we do things around here- which is a perfect definition of what culture is.

As we experience the Next Normal, it is extremely important to realign ourselves to our organisation’s core Purpose and Values. It’s going to empower and direct us like never before. Every single member of the organisation needs to embrace, believe in and align themselves to this north star. This will be the compass that will guide all meaningful decision making so that the organisation can navigate the change and do its best to not only ride, but soar above this tsunami of transformation.