Great Workplaces Have Cultures People Want To Be Part Of

“We have a culture where we are incredibly self critical, we don’t get comfortable with our success.” – Mark Parker, CEO, Nike

82 percent of respondents to a Deloitte Global Human Capital Trends survey consider culture to be a potential competitive advantage. Is your workplace culture something you rave to your friends about? If it’s not, then before blaming others, understand whether you are part of the problem or the solution.

While there’s a top down approach to building a culture, it’s also based on the sum of the daily actions and behaviours of the workers. It’s a shared vision and responsibility. I’ve always liked to be part of cultures who are respectful of the employees, who promote accountability and fairness and who communicate what's happening and why. If that’s the culture I want to be part of then it’s only logical that’s how I should behave because if I don’t then I’d be detracting from the culture.

Netflix is known to be one of the best places to work, yet employees are held to higher standards than those at many other companies. Netflix’s culture hasn’t happened by accident; it’s designed to attract only those who they refer to as “fully formed adults.” If you’d like to learn more then take a look at the 125 page document Netflix Culture: Freedom & Responsibility that has been viewed over 18,000,000 times on SlideShare.

What about the culture where you work? Consider these four questions to help determine where it’s at:

•       Simple to define – Can it be articulated in a sentence?
•       Repeatable – Can it be done again and again?
•       Aspirational – Do others want to be part of it?
•       Evidence – How will you know it’s real?

While great cultures might be designed, they’re only possible based on the actions people take. Are you contributing to yours positively or negatively?