"Culture is a verb, not a noun": building culture through a crisis

"Let's just get done with this audit/sales cycle/product launch/fundraise (etc, etc) then we can focus on all this 'culture stuff'"!

Raise your hand if you've heard your CEO or senior team say something to this effect at least once. Culture seems to be stuff to work on separate from the business - as if one doesn't directly impact the other. It's rare that things happen the other way around though - generating higher revenue or closing more accounts or launching more products don't change a company's culture. But strengthening a company's culture directly impacts how and how much sales are made, how successful product launches area and how goals are met. So is there anything else equally important that you should focus on, especially when your company is going through a crisis, a slowdown or a complete 180 degree shift in your core?

Here are six tips you can try this week!

Forget your values, focus on your behaviours - this is the best time to really translate values into actionable behaviours. How are people doing things? What does "transparency" look like? Publishing notes from calls and important meetings, circulating agendas of meetings beforehand, sharing goals across the organization so everyone knows what the other is doing. What does "ownership and accountability" look like? Instead of checking up regularly on what your teams are doing (like you would have done in a walk-by their desks in the office), resist the temptation to ask for minute updates. Instead, migrate your team onto a project management software like Trello that allows people to publish what tasks they're working on and have finished. If you're an employee, communicate and over-communicate when you're done with a project or delayed so that people aren't wondering and waiting for a status update.

Repeat your processes more often - what may have been monthly or quarterly meetings and gatherings may need to be repeated more often, in order to maintain that sense of bonding, camaraderie and ensuring everyone is on the same page. Some companies are having weekly all hands, or bi-monthly instead of monthly. If you were having 1-1 checkins with your team once in 15 days, push that up to once a week to ensure you can clarify your team's doubts and concerns when they happen. If the CEO did a townhall once in three months, have them address all employees and open themselves up for questions once a month. These are difficult times, people will have concerns. Bottom line - make yourself available two or three times more than you normally would for your teams, and make sure they know it!

For that matter, rethink your processes - Certain high-touch activities that involved close interaction may no longer be possible to do in the same manner as before. That doesn't mean you shouldn't do them - you just need to figure out the right changes to make to the process to account for your employees' current ecosystems. Monday morning 8 am huddle calls? Maybe shift them to 10 am once employees have had the chance to settle their kids into a routine. Many companies have already rethought orientation and onboarding - but what exits or when an employee leaves in a remote work environment? One day they're online, the next day they're not. If it's on favourable terms, ensure you plan a small send-off and make the employee feel valued even if they are isolated right now.

Go beyond Zoom - if your company expects to stay remote for longer than just a few more months, it's worth it to explore other software that allow you to replicate the structure of a workplace and workday and create moments for interaction. Look at Whiteboarding tools to use during a brainstorm meeting, collaboration and productivity tools to reduce time sharing and looking for versions of files and documents and tracking project status. Mix it up so that employees aren't staring at the same interface all day long! And if easier sometimes, just pick up the phone!

Communicate and celebrate - the milestones and achievements right now may be very different than what they were when things were "normal". You may not meet your targets but you may have finally edited that company manual that has been pending for over a year! Or you may have fixed a long-standing bug in your software, making your website or product run faster and better. Shift your metrics to "quality of work and tasks accomplished" v/s "quantity of time", or for that matter presence in all meetings!

And the most important way to build a strong culture through a time like this and a fully remote environment - give people time (and permission!) to log off. Do not expect a fully-on workforce, and do not make that the sole goal of your or your teams' weeks. Give people a break from being "on-calls" by introducing No-Meeting Tuesdays/Wednesdays/Thursdays. out of consideration to working parents, schedule calls between 10 am - 4 pm, and allow the rest of the time for them to work at their own pace. Assign 2 employees to a task so that they can switch off and take over based on the other's priorities and ability to work. And as a team leader yourself, be mindful of when and how you communicate to your teams, knowing fully well that it's difficult to ignore an email from the boss!