3 Ways To Sustain a Vibrant Culture

 

Warning: Trying to formalize a cool environment can make the hip factor go away.

Growing companies need some amount of process to prevent chaos, duplication of work and miscommunication. The right procedures help free up time and energy.

But the founders of Method, the cleaning products firm, asked, “How do we institute process without suffocating culture?”

To answer this question, Method interviewed six companies with cool cultures — Apple, Google, Pixar, Nike, Starbucks, and Innocent. A warning and three themes emerged.

The warning: “The greater the effort to formalize culture — to box it in with structure and guidelines — the faster that culture slips away.”

The advice:

• Make sure each interviewee’s personality fits with your culture. If not, decline the candidate even if the person’s skill set matches your job description perfectly.
• Provide up-front training on how to “live” the culture.
• Give feedback on cultural issues, not just job performance.

This wisdom sounds simple. Yet most organizations are hard-pressed to succinctly describe their culture. This entertaining book excerpt relates the process Method used to articulate its “Methodology” (corporate values).

If an outsider asked your employees to sum up your culture in an “elevator pitch,” would your staff respond with a unified voice?

All the success!

Peter Mclees, MS LMFT
Principal