How We Did It: Creating a Culture Book
As 2017 kicks into high gear, Inquisition was approached by long-standing partner, a private bank, to create an induction manual to introduce new members to their digital team and familiarise these members with other team mates, the organisation and work processes.
Now, this is easier said than done. In order to create a manual that feels like it was written and created by the organisation for the organisation, we needed to tap into their built-up expertise and insights that formed over time.
Interviews & Transcriptions
As such, we embarked on a weeks-long immersion phase where we interviewed the existing digital team based on a variety of initial outlines, provided by the organisation.
These outlines, as broad and far-reaching as they were, provided a template for questioning, from which more sections emerged. As we found out, there’s only so much you know and can assume, as an outsider; the rest is surprising, unexpected or a blind spot you’ve missed.
Once the interviews were concluded, we moved onto the next phase, which was to transcribe the audio we recorded. As we found out, there’s a reason transcriptionists are paid well to do just that — transcribing is a time-consuming challenge, especially with the amount of insight we had gathered, and thus, we had our interviews transcribed to fast-track the process of creating the induction manual.
Content Structure
From the transcriptions, we were able to sift through information provided by the existing digital team and capture the most important details. These details went on to form the table of contents, which ended up looking like this:
We structured the table of contents in such a way that it formed an arc — an arc where the reader, in this case the inductee, may be introduced to the organisation, learn how it works, as well as their position within it, all tying in to a broader theme of relationship-building and connectedness; something the organisation credits to its employee and organisational success.
Now that we had a structure to work from, the next phase could be implemented: good ol’ copywriting. And copywriting we did!
Copywriting
The first few sections, Hello, How This Book Works, Why You’re Here, How It All Started, Where We’re Headed, Our History, The Digital Team, Our Core Characteristics, Team Profiles and Mortal Kombat & Donkeys, provide context for a newcomer to the organisation’s language; a language they’ll be hearing and using frequently, going forward.
While these sections provide context for the digital team and organisation, it serves the purpose of putting a new team member at ease. There’s nothing worse than not being in on a joke — this is the organisation’s way of allowing you in and sharing the joke, so you may laugh along, as part of a their team.
The next few sections, How We Work, the Enablement Process and the UX Digital Process gets down to business. These sections specifically outline how the organisation’s digital team goes about work, execution, client liaison & feedback as well as deployment.
From there, it’s about the worker, as a new inductee to the digital team, again.
There’s method to our madness, or structure, as it were: the flow of the induction manual’s content is intended to, firstly, introduce you and “let you in on the joke”, then, the work processes are meant to expose you to the organisation’s serious side — the work — but as you’re in the process of being inducted and you’ll find out those things as you start working, the shift changes, again, to that of making you feel at home and how to position yourself as an organisational family member.
So, from the organisation’s work processes, the manual moves on to The Social Club, tips and pointers for a newcomer’s first six months, building a reputation and relationships amongst team members and the broader organisation, as well as recent events pertaining to the digital team.
Then, the manual moves on to Squad Goals. These are must-do’s, or a checklist of sorts, to make sure your first couple of days, weeks and even months at the organisation takes place as smoothly as possible. This list outlines everything from work to social, leaving no stone unturned and no employee confused.
We included a work journal in order to promote active, continuous reflection amongst new workers outlining what you’d like to achieve this week, what the current condition is, what you need to do in order to reach your target. Completed Day 1? Great! Rinse and repeat.
The manual concludes with a glossary of terms specifically used by the organisation’s digital team and the organisation as a whole. We all know how frustrating it can be when acronyms are flying about and you have no idea what they mean — no more!
To round it all off, a building map is included, you know, for health and safety reasons. Also for not getting lost.
So that’s the copy. All in all, this took us about a week to write and re-write until it sounded like something the organisation would say.
Graphic Design
Once we and the organisation were happy, we got to brief an incredibly talented graphic designer on the designs we envisioned accompanying our text. For this, we created a separate Google Document (we had two, one for copy and one for graphics) so that we could suggest designs per section, with the graphic designer in question editing or asking questions, as needed, in a fully digitally collaborative space. From there, all that was left to do was printing.
The organisation’s Manual Guide for the Induction of New Members in the Digital Team was handed out to their new workers and consumed in a excited, ready-to-get-going way, which made us proud and excited for their journey ahead, knowing they’ve got the tool to help them get started.
If your organisation could benefit from a handbook or manual, get in touch! Each of our creations are custom-made to suit your organisations exact needs and wants.
