Hi. Grace Judson here, and welcome to the Virtual Corporate Culture Challenge – Day One! (Try saying that three times fast!)
Okay. We’re going to start by defining what your corporate culture is. Because without knowing what something is, it’s a little hard to know how to tell people about it!
Your company’s values, vision, and mission are a starting point for what your culture is, but they’re only a starting point because – as I suggest in today’s worksheet – most companies aren’t as aligned with those three things as they might like to be, or even as they might think they are.
So the first thing I want you to do is, read your company’s values, vision, and mission aloud to yourself. You may not have all three, but read what you can, and in that order, because that’s how they play out, typically. Reading aloud means you’re taking in the words on multiple levels – it’s a lot different from just reading them silently to yourself.
Think about how aligned the organization is to what you’ve just read. Are you – is the organization, are the employees, walking the talk? or something close? or is there a gap? No judgement here. A lot of companies, as I think we probably all know, have some gaps.
Second thing: another big aspact, a very big aspect, of any corporate culture is the unstated things about it. Things people just know, after they’ve been there for a while. Expectations that are understood, but seldom actually articulated. These are the things that new hires will often trip over until they’ve been around long enough to observe and adopt them. And they’re usually so ingrained in “it’s just how things are” and “it’s how we do things around here” that you might have to think for a moment or two to come up with any of them. And it’s often simple stuff, such as whether meetings always start on time, how flexible different managers are about scheduling time off, and of course expectations about putting in extra time. Those were three examples about time, but they – this type of thing covers every aspect of the organization.
Finally, all companies have a personality. And this is an important point when it comes to understanding and communicating the culture. Some are outgoing and fun. Some are buttoned-up and formal. And if your company is on the larger side, you’ll notice that different departments have different personalities. So, if your company or your department were a person, what would its personality be? Is it introverted or extroverted? Is it intuitive or supremely logical?
A couple of examples. At one time in my corporate life, I worked for a medium-sized company where the different departments had distinctly different personalities. The tech support department was fun-loving and slightly wacky. The professional services department was more serious and focused. The engineering department – true to stereotype! – was fairly quiet and introverted. A completely different example: I happen to have a treasured Mont Blanc fountain pen, and sometimes it needs to be repaired or cleaned or serviced in some way, and I send it off to Mont Blanc for them to do that. And I can tell you that the Mont Blanc company personality is extremely proper, stiff, and formal in every interaction! So, with all that in mind, what’s true for your company or your department?
And finally, think about how all this impacts people as they work from home. Which of the values that your company holds are even more important in this situation? What aspects of the personality are getting lost because people aren’t together in the office? And so on.
And write it all down. You have some space in today’s worksheet – please make sure you download that – but if more comes to mind than there is space allocated there, take out a piece of paper, open up a document on your computer. Because writing literally makes different connections in your brain, and this allows new ideas and new insights to come forward. So you will learn more by writing something – by writing about something – that you will by thinking about it.
Have fun with it!
And! Important! Don’t forget to post a comment about your discoveries and your thoughts in this exercise, so you’ll be eligible for today’s prize and then ultimately for the Grand Prize, which you can be eligible for if you post a thought on every day this week for the challenge.
And I’ll see you back here tomorrow for Day Two.
(The prizes were for the original participants in the three-day Challenge, and have all been awarded; there are no prizes currently being offered.)
You can’t promote a culture – whether virtually, hybrid, or in the office – without a clear definition of what it is – both the stated and the un-stated components.
Comments 19
Ask a question – post an “aha” moment – make a commitment about what you’ll do – say what your culture currently is!
reflective thinking is really important to understand what you are today and how aligned – an now primarily misaligned because of COVID – you are or are not!
Absolutely. Without observation and awareness, it’s basically impossible to know what’s going on, BUT this is a point that is so often missed!
Definitely getting me thinking about personality of my clinic
Suzanne, that’s great! I’d love to hear more if you’d like to say more.
Listening to this and also just hiring several new employees for the first time since we opened . I realized we have always added patients to the schedule whether we are full or not but the new employees are not taught this in training.In training they are taught how to schedule but just seeing a full schedule and that means the day is done you go to the next day. But being new and also new to our organization I totally see were the employee was coming from in just looking at the schedule. I had to explain we go a little deeper then just a schedule we care about our patients like we care for our family.
And Kami – that’s a *great* statement of the culture that you could focus on: “we care about our patients like we care for our family.” LOVELY! Thanks for sharing!
I work for a university where there are definitely different personalities for the different divisions, subdivisions/colleges, and departments. In fact, although the missions, vision, and values is posted – we also have a statement of culture. The mission, vision, and values are very tied to community and academics, but not all departments work in community or academics. Instead we (staff) have to be reminded of the bigger purpose. I am pleased that we have the statement of culture to kind of bridge that gap in some way.
Very cool! I’ve actually never come across a “statement of culture” before – what a great idea! Thanks for sharing!
https://www.csusm.edu/about/facts/mission.html
Love it – thanks!
MANA is physician owned. The physicians, while working to see patients, are the owners of the business. I think we could do better explaining this to new employees when they are hired by and report to managers. This is confusing to new employees I think especially when we also have an administration that is separate from the clinics and managers that hire.
You make great points, Paula, for your specific organizational structure but also for *any* new hire in *any* organization. Reporting paths aren’t always clear – but also, every organization does things a little differently from others. Being aware of what can cause confusion (which may be completely obvious when one has been there for a while!) is important. This is part of the unspoken aspect of a company’s culture!
This exercise made me think about the personality of our clinic and our parent company. I believe the patient always comes first and that we provide excellent medical care, but there is much more to consider. Thank you for opening up my eyes. I want our clinic to be the best it can be.
Thanks, Jeanie! I’ll guess that what you’re experiencing is the ways we can all get accustomed to How Things Are without really thinking about them. Stepping back to take a look is an important part of remaining *intentional* about our experience and the experience of those we work with.
I think I’m a little late but wanted to comment anyway. What this exercise made me think about is the phrase “it’s easier said than done.” By that, I mean companies have mission, vision and values, but it takes continuous effort to live by those things. It’s easy to let day to day get in the way and not always walk the talk. I’m trying to be more conscientious about keeping the values (in particular) front and center with everything we do.
YES. I think there’s a misperception that once one has done the work (and it is work!) of crafting a values statement and vision and mission that the work is over.
But … nooooo! It’s only the beginning!
I perform new employee orientation for MANA among many other job duties. I have an astute respect of first impressions and of the importance in feeling like you are warmly welcomed by an engaging and friendly comrade. My goal is to make every new employee at MANA feel assured of their choice of employment and excited to start anew! I hope to convey that MANA has a culture of compassion and caring not only for our patients, but also for our fellow employees, which is stated in the MANA Mission Statement. I do tell them about how MANA is a physician owned group of medical clinics and the top of MANA’s governing hierarchy is the physician board of directors. I understand that my entry is too late for your competition. I wanted to reply nonetheless.
Sherri, thank you for commenting! It sounds like you’re well-grounded in MANA’s culture and dedicated to communicating it.
One thing I’d add is to remember that communicating culture is something that needs to be done consistently, not just when you bring on a new employee. I talk about consistency in Day 3, so you’ll come to that tomorrow.
Don’t forget to comment on Day Two today, so you can be included in the Day Two drawing!