William Vanderbloemen - Culture Wins: The Roadmap to an Irresistible Workplace

A SAVIO REPUBLIC BOOK

An Imprint of Post Hill Press
ISBN: 978-1-68261-523-2

ISBN (eBook): 978-1-68261-524-9

Culture Wins

The Roadmap to an Irresistible Workplace

2018 by William Vanderbloemen

All Rights Reserved

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author and publisher.

posthillpress.com

New York Nashville

Published in the United States of America

CHAPTER 4

Great Culture, Top to Bottom

E VERY COMPANY IVE STUDIED that has a great culture has a leader living that culture whos totally committed to it. Many of them pose questions to themselves regularly about what theyre doing to maintain a healthy culture. They also tend to formalize this to ensure it gets done.

When I spoke with Terry Nawrot, the COO at Informz, an email marketing solutions provider, he told me his company posts its values in the building, but spreading culture also demands a lot of one-on-one communication. At Informz, the CEO and the COO meet with every employee once a year. Even though it isnt a huge organization, that commitment takes a lot of time. In addition, managers have one-on-one meetings with team members twice a month. They also do shout-outs, saying thank you and good job to the people living out the cultural values and not just hitting their numbers. As theyve driven cultural values throughout their organization, the complaint levels have gone down and positive feedback has gone up. Terry said they also do things most other companies do to show their appreciation, like give employees pizza and bagels to thank them for adopting a healthy culture and living it.

If youre hiring the right people, youve defined the culture with your people, and youve codified it and spread it throughout your organization, youre more likely to see people living that culture early on and without being asked or reminded. For example, at my firm, we prepare packets that talk about our business, and we use them for talks with potential candidates. During our robust seasons, theres a lot to do, and everyone stays extremely busy. On one occasion, a consultant asked if he could have an extra one. That may seem like a minor request, but its actually a lot of work to put one of them together, and the person in charge of the packets had been with us two weeks. Considering his workload, and with his being new to the job, I figured adding one more thing to his plate would put him over the top. Instead, he jumped right in and offered to get it done. When I see people proactively going beyond their job description in an effort to help their coworkers, their team, the company, and our clients, I see our culture at work.

That attitude has to exist at every level. Leaders have to embody it. Spreading culture is easier with a smaller, flatter organization with fewer layers, but regardless of the size of an organization or how its structured, everyone has to be on board with the culture. There cant be an us and them, or a different set of rules for employees and management.

Learning by Example

The more the leader lives out the culture, the more employees will follow suit. If the leader embodies, pushes, and champions culture, participates with the employees, and is visible and accessible, the culture will thrive.

Before I started interviewing CEOs and asking questions about how other companies develop and maintain a healthy culture, I thought I was doing a decent job living out culture at my own firm. The more I learned, the more challenged I felt to live out our culture with intention. Its up to the leader of an organization to set the tone for the rest of the company. If youre a team leader, look in the mirror and ask yourself how youre living out your culture. Take it on as a personal challenge.

Im reminded of the comparison of two generals. The first general sat in the back of his army, while the second general was on the front line checking in with his soldiers every day. Who do you think the soldiers were loyal to?

Living out your companys values should feel natural. It shouldnt feel unnatural or forced, and if its not natural, then either the values are wrong or you, as the leader, are wrong for the company. If the leader doesnt match the cultural values, one of those two things is out of place.

Losing Culture

The team at Google said, We have a very healthy amount of paranoia about losing our culture, and it keeps it on track.

Losing culture is something Im afraid of on a daily basis. As my company grows, I worry about it even more because its harder to maintain a healthy culture as you add more people. Its easy to end up with silos of people who develop their own culture, and it may not be in line with the culture of your company.

I started my firm on a card table, and as we grew, we moved into a horrible space with paper-thin walls. We were practically on top of each other, and everyone could hear what everyone else was doing, but we also communicated easily and everyone knew what everyone else was doing.

Then we moved to a bigger building and went from one thousand square feet to five thousand square feet. It was still pretty tight, but it was the best we could afford. The desks were crammed together in close quarters, and there was really no privacy at all. One of our interns at that place went the entire summer without using the bathroom at work for fear his coworkers would hear him.

Youd think we wouldve wanted nothing more than to get out of that tiny space. But when we moved to a professional buildinggoing from five thousand to fifteen thousand square feet, with a corner that wrapped around the core of the buildingwe werent completely excited. The first thing we noticed was that we couldnt all see one another. There were sections within the office. I thought, Were going to turn into silos. What are we going to do? I was scared to death.

Whenever theres a threat to the culture, such as moving into a new space, you have to be aware of it and proactive about it. Communication and collaboration arent going to happen if people are divided, so you have to come up with new ways to ensure theyre working together. Each time weve grown, so have my concerns; therefore, Im very aware of our physical space and how it affects our culture.

Physical Space and Culture

When we moved to the bigger office, we knew wed need to be intentional about designing the space in a way that matched our culture. That didnt mean we were going to put in a Ms. Pac-Man machine, but we did create a workspace that promoted collaboration. Later, I discovered this is what the book The Best Place to Work recommends to build a great culture.

We moved thirty people from five thousand to fifteen thousand square feet, tripling our floor space, and we finally had room to spread out. We bought some big chairs from IKEA so everyone would be comfortable. Frankly, this was the first office where we could even fit chairs like that.

The best space in the office had a wonderful view of the city. Rather than make it my private office, we made it the break room. I realized the room would traditionally be the CEOs space, but it didnt make sense to keep it to myself.

The architect told us the break room was way too big and wed be wasting space, but we knew, with our culture, wed use it. People eat together in the break room every single day. If they go out, they get their food to go and bring it back to the office so they can sit together there. Its not a dirty, ugly, avoid-at-all-costs kitchenette with burnt-coffee smells and microwaved Hot Pockets. Our break room is big and airy and a place where people like to gather for eating, for meetings, or to talk. In addition to the break room, we put huddle spots throughout the office so people can collaborate and communicate. Having designated areas for these casual, formal, and impromptu activities encourages the culture weve developed and decreases the odds of silos developing in isolated areas. Silos can create their own culture, which may not be in line with the companys and may actually even contradict the healthy one.