Culture and the art of Friday drinks.
Australian creative agency For The People recently addressed the question of workplace culture in one of their weekly book club sessions. As a former employer of mine and one in which I am still connected to through relationships both personal and professional it left me thinking about what exactly workplace culture is.
The oft debated and misunderstood nature of culture leaves most of us confused as to what makes a good culture and what makes a bad one. I’m going to attempt to unpack some of the core tenets and highlight a few winning approaches.
“If you’re not consciously creating your culture, a culture is going to get created around you, or despite you.” Shadowed Qualities — Startup S4E3, Jerry Colonna.
Plenty of workplaces have really strong clearly defined cultures matured out of deliberate action or encouragement and plenty are happy accidents. The counter to this is culture that is intrinsically negative to the success of a business and it’s people. If a culture sticks that is less than positive it will always be a challenge to re-shape it into something worthwhile.
Your ping-pong table is a potentially worrying sign.
Since Google went ‘Full Google’ (official term) businesses around the world have gone out of their way to ensure their staff and the greater world sees them as a fun loving happy environment. While plenty have things like ping-pong tables so that staff can have a bit of fun in their downtime the addition of games has become a beacon for an environment that values the perception of good culture over the actuality of it.
This brings me to my next point. Culture as a vapid means of over-working staff. The headquarters of many big global brands are offering everything from meals, game rooms, massage rooms, gyms and every addition you could ever possibly want. Sounds great right!? That is until you consider the implication of a workplace environment that provides little motivation to ever leave. The best people I have ever worked with are always aware that work in the 21st century doesn’t ever really stop but that clear boundaries need to be drawn. An environment that seeks to blur the lines between business and pleasure may be either through deliberate choice or a cultural accident taking advantage of their people.
Talk to anyone who has worked in a forward thinking ‘new-age’ workplace and they will usually tell you about the freedom of working from beanbags, relaxed hours and perks aplenty. Workplace culture has the ability to define the way employees see themselves and their environment. It provides a core platform for the work they do. If an environment offers relative relaxation mixed with creativity and drive it isn’t shocking to see that the work reflects this. Creative agencies around the world have been embracing this reasoning since before the dinosaurs. However, the counter to this is a ‘business mindset’ driven environment that’s culture is centred around professional achievement above creativity and personal success. While this may make sense in certain environments it can be limiting in an emotional sense.
The cultivation of a healthy workplace environment and by extension culture is something that cannot be forced. If you try, you will likely fail spectacularly and resemble something like Dunder Mifflin’s Michael Scott. A positive environment is created when conversation and dialogue is at the core of a companies operation. Both formally and informally open and truthful interactions allow management and staff to better understand one another and their motivators.
There is no way to force this without a genuine interest in those around you. For leaders in a business (this doesn’t have to be management) it can be as simple as asking a colleague out for a drink after work. Most importantly its about genuine interaction and interest with one another.
Friday drinks are so common that finding a reasonably quiet bar or pub at the end of the week is often impossible. That being said, you should try. Bringing people together to discuss their lives, work and have an open collaborative whinge about things that happened during the week is empowering and healthy. It is the easiest way to prevent the bottling of emotions and unhappiness, the by-product being an open environment.
If you want to contribute to your works culture then consider the following.
For businesses
Be mindful of your staff, if it seems like heads are permanently down, headphones blasting and little interaction is happening outside of meeting deadlines then take action. Find a time to engage your entire team in an activity whether it be lunch together or something physical your team’s performance will improve as a result.
Gimmick’s are great when interviewing potential employees but less useful in reality.
You can not force culture but you can give it a healthy nudge.
For employees
You have more control over your workplace than you realise. You contribute to the culture as much as everyone, want to see something change? Take action.
Be warned of a gimmicky work-place! New job has a ping-pong table covered in dust, what does that really say?
Everyone
In the age of ‘chief people officers’ culture development is a discussion at the core of businesses worldwide. While it is a hard thing to nail down and define it should be considered by everyone in the working world. Embrace it, define it or be part of it. Above all else, contribute and the rewards will be plenty.
If you want to be in touch you can contact me at chrismcmlou@gmail.com
Illustrations by Vanessa Brewster http://www.vanessabrewster.com/
