The art of embedding brand behaviours
When you’re preaching to the converted
We’re pumped (and there’s muffins). Could this be the turning point? The way forward? It’s 10am — time for the most anticipated event of the year: the ‘Launch of the Brand Behaviours.’ But then the people at the top present the same old words and phrases that we, in retrospect, knew were coming all along. And then… nothing.
I’m sure I’m not alone in thinking this little scenario plays out all too often. We’ve been there. Companies come up with a neat set of wordsmithed ideals, and adorn the office with posters reminding us that this is how we behave now. It’s all very lovely, but it doesn’t stick. Soon enough, the words become corporate guff and posters become wallpaper. And the behaviours die.
At Flux, we’re not interested in becoming another statistic. When it comes to embedding brand behaviours, we know what not to do. Admittedly, posters do feature… but there’s more than meets the eye.
Culture and strategy feed one another
‘Culture eats strategy for breakfast’ doesn’t resonate with me. Culture feeds strategy and strategy feeds culture — one can’t survive without the other.
Well before Flux’s split from Powershop, our cultural vision had been defined by:
- describing the culture Flux needs to succeed and to be different,
- recognising what’s already in our DNA and what should be carried through,
- identifying where our behaviours fit within our wider brand framework,
- and deciding who’s responsible for driving a sustainable culture at Flux.
Reps from different teams across the business formed ‘The Culture Club’ and their job was to work with Flux crew to refine and validate our behaviours: Give a Shit. Think Beyond. Boldly Go. Not your stock standard!
At Flux, Give a Shit means caring about all things — our crew, customers, work, product and office space. It’s about doing your best and being your best. Think Beyond is about thinking beyond yourself and your team to understand the issues and find solutions. It’s about using your brain and the brains of others around you. And Boldly Go is about being brave, bold and finding a way. To have tried and failed is better than not trying at all.
Preaching to the converted
I joined the Culture Club when it was time to start embedding the behaviours. In some respects I feel we’re preaching to the converted — after all, our crew came up with the behaviours and we wouldn’t be where we are today without living and breathing them to some degree. But it’s not a one-time exercise. Embedding is a continuous process — behaviours need to be established and reinforced to contribute to culture (and I say ‘contribute’ because behaviours aren’t the only thing that make up culture; there’s also underlying values, beliefs, assumptions and life experiences that each employee brings to a company).
As a Culture Club, we acknowledge that we can influence behaviour change but not control it. And that we’re more likely to succeed by embedding behaviours into existing business processes by making small, manageable tweaks rather than introducing brand new concepts. With this in mind, our goal is to embed Flux behaviours in our day-to-day throughout the ‘Fluxter’ lifecycle in a meaningful way, resulting in measurable outcomes for our people, product and business.
Shortly after I joined The Culture Club, we picked three areas to focus on:
1. Attract new crew.
We agreed that it’s important for future Fluxters get insight into what it’s like to work at Flux before joining us, so we need to expose them to our behaviours throughout the recruitment process. This means describing the behaviours we’re looking for in our job ads and position descriptions, and reframing interview questions around the behaviours.
2. Help our crew recall and understand the behaviours.
There’s a step before truly bringing brand behaviours to life, and that’s reiterating the behaviours and their meanings to our crew. We all need to be able to recall the behaviours, get thinking about what they mean to us and our workmates, and learn how they’re already being demonstrated.
This is where those posters feature, but at Flux we make the whole process more engaging and inclusive. Teams have been talking about what the behaviours mean to them and posters have been popping up around our workspace with direct quotes from them. There’s also a Slack channel dedicated to sharing images, gifs and videos that represent our behaviours, and new crew will continue to become familiar with the behaviours throughout their induction.
3. Encourage crew to embody our behaviours and identify them in their workmates.
For behaviours to become second nature, we decided we needed to embed them in our existing workflow and processes. At Flux, we work in Agile delivery teams that follow the scrum framework. This means we can tweak existing scrum ceremonies like sprint planning and retrospectives to make behaviours part of the conversation. And, like most companies, there are six-monthly crew engagement surveys and annual performance reviews. We can tailor questions to help us gauge whether we’ve successfully embedded Flux behaviours, and measure their impact on our people, product and business.
We’re still figuring things out, like navigating the fine line between recognising and rewarding behaviour. It’s a continual process of feedback and iteration, and I have no doubt there are going to be hiccups along the way. As a Culture Club, we’ve agreed to be transparent about the work planned, and remind crew why we’re doing it.
Our culture is what differentiates us. Anyone can copy strategy, but it’s pretty difficult to replicate culture. For me, being part of Culture Club is a unique opportunity to help bring awesome people through our doors and leverage what’s already great about working at Flux.
