CULTURE IN THE ‘OLD’ WORLD
So, what if we no longer walk through the front door? How will your organization create a metaphorical “home base”? Let me throw out a couple of considerations as you’re building your culture in the new world order.
I arrived at the office mid-morning on a Friday in March, before the stay-at-home order was ever enacted. As I walked through the lobby, I noticed people gathering, talking, and laughing in the common area, as they often do. Some were collaborating on projects, hovered over laptops, others were just enjoying a loaf of banana bread that one of the employees hadmade with their own hands. I saw people warming up breakfast in the microwave and putting their lunch in the community fridge, wondering if it was too early to fire up the popcorn machine (it’s never too early). I saw three of our conference rooms full of people writing on whiteboards, passing the dry erase marker back and forth, presenting an outline agenda
TIP #1: START SMALL
We think one of the secrets is to start small. If you try managing throughgenericmass communication, you’llmiss it. Corporate communication is often sterile and doesn’t make any of us feel like we’re really part of something
special. For an illustration, consider those universitieswhere the lecture was held in an auditorium with 200+ students and then the next class was 15 students gathered in a small classroom, facing each other and engaging in dialogue guided by the professor. Maybe you were nodding off from Thirsty Thursday in either case. However,
to power through for the next hour. In the not so distant past, our atrium was full of people in the office for an all-company “town hall” meeting. As part of that event, we announced our core value shout-outs to celebrate those employees who exemplified one of our five core values over the last quarter.
Again, if we’re trying to differentiate, just having small ‘work groups’ doesn’t cut it. We have to find ways for people to really connect and build relationships.
you can’t argue the fact that building relationships in those smaller classroom settings was a whole lot easier. Likewise, with your company’s culture initiatives, start small. Encourage groups to gather. Not just work groups, but shared interest groups, too. Perhaps use surveys to understand the interests within your organizational walls. Put all of those fancy collaboration tools to good use and help your people connect on a more meaningful level than their morning scrum meeting. Again, if we’re trying to differentiate, just having small ‘work groups’ doesn’t cut it. We have to find ways for people to really connect and build relationships.
With each of the five award recipients announced, there was clapping, whistling, hootin’ and hollerin’. I could hear every sound because no one was on MUTE. That is culture. That is corporate identity. At Concord, we are proud of ours and have refined it over the last 17 years. Yet, we are faced with a new challenge, like many of you, and are spending considerable time deciphering how to maintain this culture in a world that is becoming increasingly more distant. We can and will do it, but it takes some thought, planning, and desire. It’s easy in a very connected world to take for granted those things that put your company’s culture on the map. Now is the time we will all be reminded that a company’s identity is a primary reason people continue to walk through the front door. I mean, the paycheck is nice, too.
Stu Nutting
Work Culture In The New Abnormal | 17
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