Culture

In any organization, culture may be the single most important element to determining whether there is an opportunity for long term success. Without a strong culture, the employees of a given company are merely transient work bodies that check in when the job begins, do their work, and check out when the job ends. That is why I have always held that the number one trademark of any strong company is its culture and its people. But “culture” is no small feat to “create”. In fact, I don’t even support the idea that culture can necessarily be created. That would imply that time, money, or other resources could procure culture at a faster pace than it evolving organically. To me, the very key component of culture is the way it is created organically through interpersonal communication and interaction over time. Years and years of events in many cases are the only thing that can instill a strong sense of culture in a group of individuals. And that’s something that can’t be fast-tracked.

That’s just my “caution” for the day: you can’t be in a race to create or improve culture. Sure, you can augment the end product with certain things like increasing the frequency of community events, happy hours, or other fun non-work activities. You will never be able to create it overnight though. And that’s really tough for the bottom-liners to understand. But it’s true. So it’s up to the rest of us to do our part to help in the incubation and adoption of a positive work culture.

Til Next Time,
Michael

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