How’s your culture doing?

Now that the summer holidays are over, it’s time to take stock of how your culture is doing. Are your people excited to be back or dreading the Q4 rush?

Check in on the 4 key areas that we know will make a huge impact to how your team feels with our quick healthcheck - or get in touch for a more in-depth audit.

We all remember that back-to-school feeling. Our parents fretting over freshly pressed uniforms, shiny shoes that needed breaking in and a new bag that could probably fit the entire contents of a small school library. 

But the part we all remember the most vividly is the anxious apprehension of starting afresh. 

That pit of the stomach feeling that’s the emotion that sets the tone for the day. 

Look, we humans don’t like change. But it’s necessary, especially if things aren’t working.

That’s why sometimes, organisations need a little culture refresh every now and then. A spruce up. A check in to see how everyone is feeling about the coming month, quarter or year.

Something that takes the anxiety of Monday morning and turns it into fuel for the professional fire for the week ahead. 

But how can we achieve this while juggling everything else as busy leaders?

Time for a culture healthcheck!

Of course, you need to get the lay of the land before you can start improving and inspiring a culture refresh. 

So it’s crucial to sit down (or play!) with your team and check you’re doing well against these 4 key areas:

1.Clarity 

You need to know if everyone understands the vision, and whether it’s clearly communicated. Otherwise, your team is likely to be pulling in different directions, and that might be causing friction, tension of quiet dissent in the team. To find out, you’ll need to check and see:

• How clear are your people on the vision for your company or your team?

• How clear are they on the strategic priorities, and how that impacts their own workload?

The clearer the vision, the better your team’s performance will be. If they know you’re trying to achieve X goal and your top priorities to get there are 2 key initiatives, they’re more likely to be engaged and want to put in the work it takes to help you collectively get there. Which leads neatly into Engagement.

2.Engagement

Does everyone believe in your vision and are willing to work at achieving it? If your vision is vague, or your priorities go against what the team cares about, or if you gap between the vision and the tactics is too big, it’s hard for your team to want to invest emotionally in their work. That’s when the grumbling starts - and as a consequence, a sharp drop in performance and engagement levels. Check in with the team to see how they’re feeling about work:

• How do they feel on a Sunday night about the week ahead?

• How do they feel on a Friday afternoon about the week just past?

These might seem like simple questions, but they’re incredibly telling about how your people feel about the culture. Are they feeling dread and apprehension on a Sunday night? They’re probably confused, overworked and frustrated. Are they feeling energised and excited on a Friday afternoon? They’re engaged and feel rewarded by the work they’re doing!

Trust

Does everyone feel free to speak up, raise concerns, and be their full selves at work? Creating a safe environment where your people feel comfortable coming to you (or to anyone else in the team) with questions, feedback or concerns is crucial for building trust and psychological safety. Find out how your people feel about being open and honest:

• How often do they feel heard and valued when they bring up tough topics to the leadership team or to each other?

• How often do they feel like they can be their full selves at work?

• How safe do they feel asking for help or saying “I don’t know”?

Building trust in a team is a critical element to help your team feel safe and valued. Both of these being a critical element to foster genuine Collaboration.

Collaboration

Is everyone working well together and collaborating on problem-solving? Collaboration can come in different shapes and forms like asking for and offering help and leaning on workshops to fast track problem solving. Whatever your team’s version of collaboration, you want to make sure they’re comfortable working together. Check in to see how the team is doing:

• How do they feel about teamwork and cooperation levels in the team right now?

• How empowered to they feel about instigating collaboration within their team and with other teams within the organisation?

For all 4 metrics - Clarity, Engagement, Trust and Collaboration - use a scale of 1-10 to calculate the effectiveness (1 being atrocious and 10 being the best outcome you could wish for!) As a rule of thumb, anything below a 7 or an 8 needs immediate attention. There are plenty of other questions you could ask, and you can turn this whole check in into an interactive workshop (we do a lot of these, they’re incredible at surfacing issues and creating a safe space for your team to open up. Get in touch and we’ll tell you all about it!)

So now you know how your team culture is doing, it’s time to make a plan.

Outline the specific initiatives, projects, and changes needed to improve the issues your team has raised about the current culture. Our key tips at this stage include:

• Be specific: no one likes vague promises and commitments. Don’t say “we’ll look at…” . Do say “we’ll improve X by doing Y”

• Be transparent: sometimes some changes are just not possible - tell your team upfront if that’s the case, that way they know why some things aren’t possible and you can co-create other solutions that might have the similar impact

• Give ownership: no one likes the black hole initiatives go to to die. Ask your team who wants to be involved in each initiative, allocate them time to work on these initiatives and create forums for them to report progress back.

• Show progress regularly: a 6 month update might be appropriate for a big strategic shift, but smaller initiatives need to be seen more regularly. Make sure the team knows what’s happening behind the scenes otherwise they’ll lose faith in the process

• Repeat! Culture, like your team, is not a static thing, it’s constantly evolving. Create opportunities for the team to check in regularly. Every 6 months is a good cadence, with smaller pulse checks in between

And please, for your team’s sake, make it fun. Don’t send out a survey once a year and expect your culture to be fantastic and your people to perform at their best! Engage them in the process, show them you’re actually invested in creating a work environment where they can truly thrive.

Ready to supercharge your team culture in a way that’s guaranteed to make a lasting impact? Let’s chat!