How to improve your charity’s relational culture (and why)
How we interact with one another affects our charity’s culture. This is why, and how you can improve yours.
“Organisational culture has consistently been shown to predict a range of performance metrics… Future success or failure is often apparent and embedded in the cultural properties of an organisation.” — Gillespie and Reader, 2017, Psychology@LSE
Culture. Values. Relationships. Never have these felt more important than now, when our sector faces increasingly complex challenges and uncertainty.
The biggest determinant in how we will navigate these challenges is organisational culture. And the building blocks of that culture are our interactions with one another. Positive interactions in particular create happy relationships and strong cultures, making our organisations more resilient and adaptable.
Interactions that feel good
When we interact intentionally we create positive, equal relationships with potential for great things. We feel warm, heard and purposeful.
When we interact thoughtlessly we create weak, disjointed relationships that add nothing to our purpose and at worst suck energy and resources away from tasks and other relationships. We tend to end up feeling foggy, alone and anxious.
On a personal level being intentional about how we interact with one another is a no-brainer.
Learn before you teach
CAST believes its digital work must include a focus on interpersonal interactions, on relational culture that builds resilience and optimism. The team believe this applies to us all, but decided to start by seeing how much ‘intentionality’ they could bring to their own interactions. That way they’d have some insight to share that was based on experience as well as theory. The work involved the whole team but was led by CAST’s Matt McStravick, Nat Hunter and Emma Field. This article draws on what they learnt, the tools they tested and research into healthy and productive working cultures.
“We know you (our staff) share aspirations to create clarity and impact; have all voices heard; to support each other as individuals and in making your work the best it can be, for a cause you all believe in.” - CAST’s research
What’s an interaction, anyway?
At work we interact any time we engage with one another. CAST investigated these types of interactions:
- a conversation
- a catch-up
- a one-to-one
- a coaching call
- a team meeting
- a workshop
- a design session
- a partner meeting
Three research outputs
Three outputs emerged from the research: behavioural insights, golden rules and interaction tools.
1. Behavioural insights
Alert! I’m about to state the obvious, but like many other obvious things we tend to forget them. So here’s five commonly agreed upon actions and behaviours for positive interactions that emerged from the research:
- Be nice. It creates belonging and confidence. But it can also a barrier to challenging each other.
- Open up to connection. Shared problem-solving begins with this.
- Develop clarity and shared understanding. Collaboration depends on it.
- Stay grounded. Big goals become more achievable with small steps.
- Actively listen to yourself and others. Then new possibilities open up.
Interactions become even more positive when we use body language, show empathy, establish boundaries, ask questions, and show trust.
2. Three golden rules
CAST team members are trying to practice these micro behaviours most of all. Practicing them is a way of embodying their core values.
- Ask for help every day. Because it opens up space for more connection, transparency and learning.
- Reflect back what you’ve heard before you respond. Because it makes space for all voices, breeds understanding and is highly generative.
- Say what you’ve appreciated in someone every day. Because it makes your appreciation visible, builds confidence and creates trust.
3. Doing it together: four tools to guide from interaction start to interaction end
CAST created four tools, tested them in a range of interactions, then iterated them. Together they form a start-to-finish guide to creating positive, equal and productive interactions.
They will help you feel confident to lead and participate. There’s an agenda setting template and guidance for video calls too. Each tool can also be used independently.
Tool 1: Set up. Helps you prepare to make the most of your time together.
Tool 2: Check-in. Helps build trust and a shared purpose.
Tool 3: Share. Guides exploration and progress against your aims.
Tool 4: Wrap up. Shows how to end well and know what’s next.
