A culture that is evolving due to active inputs from the group is a healthy one. Culture is not a set and forget document in a frame on the wall. It is a working shared document that we contribute to everyday. What is your culture? A seemingly innocuous question but one which is apparently rather difficult for most people to articulate. However, all my years of mentoring managers, leading my own teams and simply being a student of human behaviour has taught me that most people want the same things from their teams. Support, trust, respect, a sense of belonging, an environment where they are free to make mistakes and learn from them, encouragement, striving for a common goal, excellent communication, sense of camaraderie.
I have performed the exercise with innumerable groups to articulate what they would like the team culture to be and the word salad always comes out quite like the picture above. What this has taught me is that in general we are all looking for the same basic needs in a team, the difference lies in how far they are from achieving it and if there is buy in from all of the members to contribute to achieving the culture.
A team will make inroads into certain aspects of culture improvement while other areas lag. This is the nature of any transformation process and why it needs to be treated like a working document. The communication is improving but the integrity and trust is lagging. Engagement surveys and pulse checks can assist in keeping the document relevant and ensuring the focus is on the right areas.
Changing any culture requires connection between team members and the presence of psychological safety in the group. Being able to honesty articulate how the team feels is essential to improvement. Once you have achieved the culture you are looking for it must be treated like gold. It is hard to attain and easy to lose. Keeping an eye out for a culture killer is essential and why hiring and training well are so important.
Define what your current culture is and define what you would like it to be. Focus on 3 areas at a time, make incremental improvements every day and check in regularly and accept the rule of Pantene, it will not happen overnight.
A key aspect of culture is how work is allocated and completed. When team members are at the point that you don’t know where to start, can’t focus on what needs to be done and are unable to think through priorities, they are not present or productive.