GREAT CULTURE IS IMPOSSIBLE WITHOUT STRATEGICALLY PLANNING & DELIBERATELY EXECUTING IT

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“If you get the culture right, most of the other stuff will just take care of itself.”

-Tony Hsieh, Founder of Zappo’s

Rogers, AR, January 28, 2022 (Article 2/5) – In my first culture article in this series: “Creating Culture as a Strategic Advantage,” I spoke to the manifold benefits of a strong company culture, but also mentioned that great cultures do not just happen organically.?Rather, strategic planning and active execution are the only ways to ensure a robust culture that strengthens long-term company viability.?Absent this approach, culture will drift off course and can become hard to find your way back.?

Define your cultural vision & company values

Like other business initiatives, strategic culture planning begins with identifying the vision – who do you want to be as an organization when you have reached your cultural zenith.?Be specific about what it should look like (metrics, goals, feedback, awards, attrition, etc.). ?Clearly define the company’s mission and values to enable a shared sense of purpose and ideals against which to measure progress.?

?“Connect the dots between individual roles and the goals of the organization. When people see that connection, they get a lot of energy out of work. They feel the importance, dignity and meaning in their job.”

-Ken Blanchard and Scott Blanchard, Leadership Consultants

Get input &act on it

Since you understand your mission and values, assess who you are vs. who you want to be to expose gaps that must be addressed.?Hold the mirror up and acknowledge ugly spots needing attention.?Some may be obvious while some may require more investigation.?Employee engagement research can help validate and pinpoint persistent challenge areas and/or expose new ones.?Remember, no challenge can be solved if you cannot admit the problem exists in the first place.?Identifying challenges drives progress even if painful.?

Once you know the gaps, teams can brainstorm tactical solutions that prioritize solving unmet employee needs and pain points specific to these areas.?It is ideal to solicit ideas beyond just leadership to really solve challenges middle and lower levels feel in ways relevant to them.?After all, those people usually comprise the largest percentage of employees and impact the culture daily.?They are also the ones likely doing the bulk of the actual work and interacting with customers daily so you need them engaged for a better customer experience.?Engaging all employees also creates positive sentiments, builds trust that management really cares about fixing issues, demonstrates leaders listening outside ivory towers, and breeds broad ownership for any solutions ultimately rolled out.?

When the tactical solutions list is long and varied, identify ways to prioritize implementation.?One method is scoring each tactic according to ease of implementation and magnitude of expected impact.?Highest impact items that are also easiest to implement go first and enable momentum through quick wins.?The best leader I ever worked for was Greg Foran who was Walmart’s US CEO.?He would say “you get 1 point for saying it, and 9 points for doing it.”?Quick wins demonstrate commitment with action over lip service.??

Ensure everyone is accountable for improving culture

Executing culture needs requires everyone at every level.?The best ways to achieve this involvement is by getting everyone involved early and including culture goals in annual employee objectives.?Early involvement breeds ownership in changes and camaraderie to accomplish the goals as a team.?Tying culture objectives to performance drives home the point that all employees have a stake in improving culture and are expected to focus on it.?Like any good objective, these should SMART deliverables (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound) and reviewed for progress minimally at all scheduled evaluations.???

?“Anything that is measured and watched, improves.”

-Bob Parsons, Former CEO of GoDaddy

Measure & share progress

Action alone does not mean progress.?Benchmark and measure progress over time and against goals and peer companies.?Metrics like employee NPS (net promoter score), engagement surveys, retention, % of offers accepted, etc. at the macro and team levels highlight advancement and uncover problem areas.?Once identified, focus groups and other research tools can delve deeper to understand specific remaining unmet needs, pain points, and their underlying issues.?

Overcommunicate & demonstrate with actions

Share progress results widely: good, bad, or ugly.?Leadership must talk about culture’s importance consistently and constantly at all levels.?Cultural norms, values, the mission, objectives, and progress should be woven into business conversations whenever possible to keep culture top-of-mind.?Be sure to share where the company missed the mark too.?This transparency builds trust, shows dedication that objectives have not been abandoned, keeps everyone on the same page, and demonstrates leadership is listening and truly cares.?Most importantly, it demonstrates that business success is driven by achieving culture objectives collaboratively and reminds every employee of their role to bring it to life.?

Don’t just talk about culture.?Display and communicate cultural mission and values proudly expecting all employees to know them cold.?Share them on office signs, computer screens, e-mail signatures, PowerPoint templates, etc.?Make it impossible for employees not to know them.?

Leaders must be seen, accessible, and demonstrating the cultural values apply to them too.?When speaking to employees, reference how cultural values shape decision making to highlight why they really matter.?This storytelling resonates in powerful ways and encourages others to mirror the behavior.?

Teams need to feel they know leaders and leaders have their back.?Leadership should host lunches with different groups of employees regularly and ask lots of open-ended questions to truly understand the state of the organization from their perspectives.?Parrott back what you hear so they know they have been heard and understood.?Remind employees that they are the culture and challenge them to think of new ways to bring it to life.?Also, encourage executives to keep regular mentor circles to develop employees while maintaining a finger on pulse of organization.?

?“Culture does not change because we desire to change it. Culture changes when the organization is transformed; the culture reflects the realities of people working together every day.”

-Frances Hesselbein, Former CEO of the Girl Scouts

Support employees’ interests beyond the office

Another way to demonstrate caring is by supporting what is important to employees outside work.?Encourage community involvement that is meaningful to employees with time off, volunteer help, financial support, product, or other means.?Many companies do this well.?When I was at PepsiCo in Chicago, they helped employees find and serve on local philanthropic boards.?They supported me on a local YMCA board and another board focused on matching inner-city children with young professional tutors and mentors.?It meant a lot to know I could rely on my company for time off and other support to help these organizations satisfy vital community needs.???

From my experience, the best companies cultivate cultures focused on professional development, innovation, and collaboration. Good companies do 1-2 of these reasonably well.?Great companies maniacally focus on continually upping their game in all three.?

Working on culture is the cornerstone of leadership and drives the business forward.?It is not extraneous.?My next articles in this series will expound on creating culture around the 3 key drivers of professional development, innovation, and collaboration that can take your company to the next level.??

Please share any thoughts and comments. What works in your organization??

?“Being a great place to work is the difference between being a good company and a great company.”

-Brian Kristofek, President of Advantage Solutions

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*All opinions expressed are solely mine & do not reflect those of any entity named or unnamed.?