603: How To Build Culture In The Workplace

We have been misled about the idea of culture. After poorly thought out ideas of free-Friday-lunches, bean bag chairs in the break rooms, ping pong tables, open office concepts, and incentive compensation plans, team members are still disengaged and frustrated. We are trying to solve a pervasive, soul level challenge, with the oscillating fan of surface level ideas, rather than dousing the underlying flames of cultural disconnection with the quenching water of cultural satisfaction and engagement. Often we hear business owners complaining about the pending generational work ethic, or lack of, followed by a throwing up of hands and a resignation that “my generation is the only generation that knows how to work.” When speaking to groups of small business owners, this is a typical refrain, “nobody wants to show up and work.” My response, in a kind and forceful way, “no, they just don’t want to show and work for you… because you have already given up on them.” The great challenge of a sporting coach is to recruit, develop, and game plan in a way that maximizes talent and outcomes. The same is true of a business owner.  Too many business owners are resigning to the cancerous idea that “if I want it to get done right, then I must do it myself.” NO!   We must allow that mindset to die in the graveyard of pride and hubris, and instead, embrace a growth mindset… a mindset that believes that each generation and each person has a unique brilliance to bring to a well-defined and clear mission. All businesses, generally, want great culture and yet great culture is not the default. Culture is not a business term, but has been borrowed for business from science.   Culture is a biology term. Go back to middle school science when you saw your first petri dish.  That little glass dish would hold some biological element, and then over time when subjected to heat, moisture, and any other environmental elements would grow the fruit of whatever elements were inside.   Business culture is no different, install the elements of bad culture and bad culture will grow. Install the elements of good culture and good culture will grow. If your business plants the seeds of unpredictability, lack of communication, no team meetings, little documented process, and scattered vision…then don’t be surprised at the fruit. If your business (ahem, you) plant seeds of predictability, repetitions, agendas, written and tracked goals, shared vision, mission, and values… then don’t be surprised at the fruit. Here are three elements to a great culture that engages people and makes time for the things that matter. First, write down your vision, mission, and values and commit them to repetition and memory. Vision unites, a vacuum of vision scatters. It’s a natural law. If you write down a vision of what you see and share that vision, your team will either run towards it, or run away from it, but either way, it will be clear. If you write down and memorize a less-than-ten-word mission statement and five or less unique core values, then your team will have great clarity on why they are heading in that direction, and the boundaries to remain in. You must commit to writing it down and sharing it regularly if you want the seeds of great culture. Second, you will need to maintain a written calendar to repeat those agreed upon elements of great culture.   How often do you read back through your vision, host team meetings, host personal check ins, celebrate birthdays, family anniversaries, and team member work anniversaries?  When do you write annual letters, host annual team discussions, and get feedback from your team on progress? Create one simple spreadsheet with a line of weekly dates across the top, and then line out all of the elements you want to see in great culture along the side; team days, team lunches, individual gatherings…all of it. Finally, if you want a great culture… don’t be a jerk. Be kind, be visionary, be appropriately confrontational, be helpful, be humble, be inquisitive, be aggressive… but don’t be a jerk. The livelihood of each of your full time team members is tied to your leadership, and much of that person’s discussion when they go home is around their work.   Don’t be a jerk. The bad news is that you as a business owner directly impact culture. The good news is that you as a business owner directly impact culture.  Plant the seeds for good culture… rinse and repeat.