Culture is Not a Ping Pong Table
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again (I might even get it tattooed somewhere people can see it when they meet me): Culture is not a ping-pong table. It’s not a kegerator in the break room, or having a dog-friendly office. It’s not nap-pods or staircase-slides or sabbaticals for all employees after three months of work. Those are perks, not culture.
(In fairness, those perks might be the direct result of a company’s culture, but most often, in our Google-obsessed world, they are simply shiny objects grabbed at random by HR managers or executives looking to “attract talent” or deal with an existing culture issue. They are the proverbial lipstick on the pig.)
True culture is internal, driven by values and strategy rather than external objects. Policy, communication, employee treatment, and strategic focus all drive organizational culture — every message your employees hear and decision they see you make defines your culture much more than a slushie machine in the break room ever could.
And culture is critically important to the success of your organization. A Deloitte study showed that 94% of executives and 88% of employees believe a distinct workplace culture is important to business success. (I’m not sure about you, but I’m pretty sure the last time executives and employees agreed that emphatically about anything was…never.) So how…
