A Guide to Infusing Culture into Your Organization

As we mentioned in the last blog, the truest measure of an organization’s culture is expressed through its employees. So, how do we make sure their behaviour reflects your culture?

It starts at the top. The founder trains the leadership team, who trains the managers who train the employees who ultimately train your customers on what your organization stands for.

You can tell when the person helping you at your favourite cafe has been trained to not just get you coffee, but to set you up to have a great day. They ask your name. They remember your order. They ask you how you are and actually listen to your answer. They may even give you something for free once in a while. They read your body language and they adapt to provide exemplary service just for you. They do this because their supervisors treat them like unique individuals, and they train them to do the same for customers. This organization has a core value of empathy.

What if you go to that same cafe and you don’t know what to order? The employee can sense your hesitation and ask you if you need help deciding. Instead of immediately selling you an extra-large quadruple shot Frappuccino with extra topping, they’ll ask you questions to find out what you really need. This person obviously works somewhere that trains people to work with customers to solve their problems. Working together must be a core value of this organization.

3 Ways to Infuse Culture into Your Organization

1.      Celebrate wins and relate them back to your Core Values.

+ “We achieved our monthly sales goal”, becomes, “we helped _____ number of people have a great day.” This creates a cultural purpose for your business.

2.      Provide the right training. A lot of it.

+ Technical training, interpersonal training - anything needed for people to be successful. Culture is invaluable and it deserves your time and investment.

3.      Make it a part of your meeting rhythm.

+ Daily huddles are popular for large organizations to express their values out in the open to the entire team. Weekly team meetings, monthly strategic meetings, quarterly meetings and annual meetings are all vital opportunities to relate your organization’s goals - short and long term - back to your values.

Remember, every goal, project or initiative can and should relate back to the values of your organization. People will buy into “why” when it is something meaningful that impacts their life. If you asked your employees the purpose of their job, what would they say to you?