Has your company’s culture changed over the past year? As we leave 2020 behind, it’s becoming clearer by the day that many business owners and leaders have indeed noticed a shift in their company culture and team interactions. And that change is not for the better.
How can they tell? Good question. There are two ways. In part it’s due to good people leaders being ‘tuned in’ to their staff. Secondly, it is also because culture can be described and observed as an outcome of three attributes:
When you reflect back on 2020 you may well observe that your company experienced change in all three of those areas.
In terms of behaviour, for many people all interactions were over video conference or the phone where you either can’t see people, or at best are only seeing part of their behaviour. Unless staff were actively engaged in an online meeting, many managers lost sight of how things were being done.
In most companies our uniqueness is expressed in how we do things around here.
For those who continued to be at work, none of us would describe it as a typical year – the smell of hand sanitiser was everywhere!
The symbolic aspect of work – timing of breaks, parking spaces, location of desks – were all hidden as most people went into working from home.
Where people remained at work, social distancing and face masks often obscured many of the typical symbolic features.
Most people experienced disruption to their systems all around them: if you continued to work, it was likely that your family routine and system changed (and that has an impact on you).
If you'd like help to define or refine these in your company, I can help (contact details at the end of the article).
In many ways 2020 put a circuit breaker into working relationships and interrupted patterns of behaviour that cultures were often founded on. No longer could we rely on the casual interactions in the lunch room, or on the way to or from work. It is now about being very deliberate and mindful of what behaviours it takes to sustain your desired culture.
So how do you turn that circuit breaker to advantage? Here are three practical steps you can take within your business:
1 DO DIFFERENT
If you want to maintain a culture where people feel important and you used to provide ad hoc praise, find other ways to praise them. Perhaps a handwritten card sent to their home, or a small gift hamper.
2 MEET WITH IDEAS IN MIND
Collaboration and natural interactions have suffered greatly during 2020. Put some thought into whether you can have a scheduled meeting where part or all of the time is not to an agenda, but is to encourage the sharing of insights or ideas or challenges that need solving.
3 DON’T LOSE THE LITTLE THINGS
It may be prime time to capture the small things that have typically been done that are in fact significant contributors to your culture. Take notice of them and find ways to bring them back – perhaps in slightly different ways.
Culture is tangible and you can do something to regain and sustain your company culture. Many people find the process of describing their behaviour, symbols and systems is made much easier by talking it all over with a trusted advisor. Some consultants approach gaining insights to culture like an interview process: perhaps it’s time for you to be interviewed about what makes your culture what it is and what you’d like it to be.
Pam Macdonald is a member of the Network of Consulting Professionals, and an expert in organisational culture. You can contact her on 0438 843970 or email pam@broadspring.com.au.
Photo by Daniel Öberg on Unsplash
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