The Importance Of Organizational Culture And Its Impact On Your Business

Survive & Thrive

Creating an organizational culture that fosters meaningful relationships, creativity, and creates motivation in business can be difficult in the best of times. But as the coronavirus pandemic has made clear, it can be even harder to do during a crisis. If your people weren’t questioning the value of their involvement in your company before, they’re certainly doing it now.

Jennifer is joined by Steve Van Valin to talk about the importance of work culture and the impact it can have on things like production and retaining and acquiring talent. Steve is the author of the “Culture Narrative Strategy” and “Amplify,” which have helped guide leaders to motivate their teams through purpose and creating meaningful work. He shares some of his insight and tips on creating and improving your organizational culture.

Act 1: Understanding and cultivating an organizational culture

Steve Van Valin’s background (2:05)

Jennifer introduces Steve, who talks about what he’s done throughout his career to cultivate a better work culture.

What does organizational culture mean? (3:39)

Steve and Jennifer each break down what they believe work culture actually means and what it looks like in an organization.

Tending your work culture like a garden (5:32)

Steve likens creating and nurturing an organizational culture to planting and harvesting a garden. You can’t simply state what your work culture is and have it blossom. It takes a real commitment and hard work to truly get the results you’re looking for.

Act 2: The impact COVID-19 has had on work culture

Weathering the storm (8:31)

With the pandemic creating a whole host of new challenges, work culture was one of the first things to go for many businesses. Steve talks about what he’s seen from an organizational culture perspective as employees have been working from home and personal connections have been missing.

The challenges of an ongoing pandemic (10:09)

Jennifer shares some of the things she’s done at Concinnity to help improve employee connections, including virtual cocktail hours. Steve and Jennifer talk about how the ongoing pandemic and lack of personal connections have created weariness that is beginning to impact organizational culture.

Act 3: Using COVID-19 to audit and improve your organizational culture

Combating “Zoom Gloom” and re-energizing (12:22)

Steve and Jennifer share some valuable tips for leaders to build and improve relationships and combat Zoom fatigue, which will improve your organizational culture.

Using the pandemic to create/improve your organizational culture (17:52)

As Jennifer points out, COVID-19 has, in some ways, made us more human. Our emotions are more powerful as positive things mean just a little bit more and negative issues impact us harder. Steve explains that now is the time to think about your work culture once again -- whether you need to create one or if your current organizational culture needs an audit to create a better future.

Feeling the effects of a good or bad work culture (21:51)

As Steve notes, people are really recognizing what an organization’s culture truly is during these times -- for good or bad. Moving forward, how a company performed during this crisis will have a major impact on things like finding and retaining talent.

Act 4: What you can do right now to improve your work culture

Patterns in work culture (24:05)

Steve discusses some of the patterns and core values he’s seen in work culture across all businesses. He believes getting back to the basics can make a major impact and help guide people out of a rut.

Guiding employees through a crisis (27:16)

Jennifer and Steve discuss how just asking the right questions can improve things. Steve shares some of the simple questions a business owner can ask their employees that provide empathy, creates respect, and a clearer direction of what needs to be improved to form a better work culture.

Have empathy (30:28)

Jennifer shares an example where she recognized a team member was going through something that was impacting her mood, and how just asking what they were going through created an important dialogue.

Creating small goals and small wins (31:21)

Steve breaks down how forming small goals during a crisis creates small wins, which can energize people and build confidence. He breaks down some of the ways leaders can identify those moments and connect with staff to help them without micromanaging.

Respect (33:12)

Jennifer stresses the notion of respecting your partners and staff. It can be as simple as respecting each other’s personal needs and letting people dictate their own schedules in order to foster a better environment while still getting work done well.

Acronyms for COVID (34:56)

Steve shares his own experiences with COVID-19 and how the nonstop talk about the pandemic got him down. He formed a new acronym for COVID that has helped him frame it in a new light to improve his outlook.

Links:

Steve Van Valin - Email

Steve Van Valin - LinkedIn

Culturology - Website