Our last blog centered around company culture and the effect it could have on your brand. Your company’s culture, good or bad, shows up in your brands reputation. We discussed ways to gauge the cultural health of your organization, but how do you give your company a cultural makeover?
The first step is to decide how you want your business to “feel.” Below are a few questions to ask yourself:
- What attributes do you value that you would like to show up in your company’s culture? Respect, acceptance, creativity, fun, etc.?
- What are the primary values or focus of your company? How do you make that prominent in the culture?
- How is information presently distributed in the company and how does this affect the culture?
- How are employees presently recognized?
- Does the organization give everyone a “voice?” Are employees asked to communicate their ideas and opinions?
More questions than answers may come up, so brainstorming with your co-workers is a wonderful strategy for finding creative answers. Here are several ideas to start with:
Suggestion/Thought box – Allowing people to anonymously share their feelings or opinions about the day to day in the office can cause a more open feeling in the company. These concerns can be mentioned in company meetings if they relate to everyone.
Empower employees – Let your employees make decisions. Treat the employees as peers; allow them to have a say and listen to their suggestions. Also be a transparent leader. Don’t just inform your employees when things are great, but also make them aware tactfully when things aren’t going very well.
Flexible hours – Providing people with some flexibility to get their work done exhibits trust. Trusting them to regulate themselves will cause them to respect you more.
Dress code – Gone are the days of the suit and tie on a daily basis (at least for most fields), so let personnel express themselves with their clothing. This will make them feel free and accepted. Another approach is to have themed clothing days. Examples of this are: wig day, silly t-shirt day, hat day, etc. Let employees make suggestions for themes. A little silly goes a long way.
Celebrate – You are all part of the same company and hopefully share the same goals. Celebrate this by having a monthly movie day, a team outing after work, or a lunchtime game day – anything fun that gets the group doing something together.
Below is a list of things that real companies have done to incorporate some fun to their culture:
- Spontaneous Nerf gun wars
- Painting inspirational quotes on the walls
- Hitting a loud gong when there is a success to let the whole company know
- Foosball tournaments
- Lunchtime Yoga
- Lunchtime Crafting Club
- Monday Mad Libs, whoever wishes to contribute, does, and then the completed Mad Lib is emailed to the company
Take IT Away 