WHAT IT TAKES TO BUILD A WINNING CORPORATE CULTURE (September 17, 2019)

Forget the smarts, forget the money, and forget the resources. Being successful in the business world begins with a killer culture that starts with you, expands to your employees, and reverberates loudly through every aspect of your business, all the way to to what your clients or customers experience.

Organisational culture is important because it defines both your internal identity and external identity and impacts performance and employee well-being. So, if you think your organisation needs to undergo some soul searching, here are three things you can integrate and consider, to create a winning culture within your business:

1. Develop a culture that aligns with your personality, core beliefs, and values.

Organisational culture is all about living your businesses core values. It also provides a good reflection to your people and your customers, of how you do business and what you stand for, making it important to get right.

Take all that you are and want to be and infuse and instil it into every facet of the company. This can be done by analysing the type of person and workplace you want to have.

For example, are you creative and loud? Do you endorse a work-hard-play-hard mindset? Are you relaxed but also want the best out of people? By getting people on board who will add positively to your desired culture can help set the tone. By bringing in a tribe that fits your ‘vibe’, you will be able to have people that radiate what you and your brand are about, which flows down to customers.

2. Set company rituals to encourage good culture

Rituals are significant drivers of culture, so they should be implemented thoughtfully to reinforce the organisation’s values. Rituals are important because they engage people and allow everyone to bond and be brought back to the bigger picture.

Wellbeing events, speaker events, drinks, designated volunteer days, and team bonding activities are some rituals to consider. It’s a good way to loosen up and leave the work behind to get to know each other better and instil a positive culture.

3. Communicate and involve everyone

Making team members ‘feel valued and included’ is key to maintaining engagement, productivity and, you guessed it – good culture.

When developing culture, encouraging people to speak openly and share ideas with each other is important towards progressing the business and empowering individuals. As well as this, if you have remote workers, flexible workers and part-timers, including them at gatherings and meetings is a significant factor in maintaining good, inclusive culture.

This can be achieved through leveraging technology to allow for video calls and virtual meetings. This will help keep team members connected and in-the-loop.