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How Culture Teams Can Drive Positive Culture Changes

Jun 28, 2018 by Emily Showalter 1 Comment

using culture teams to drive positive culture change blog

Bogged down with resistance to change? Having a hard time promoting your business as a promising place to work (aka hiring challenges)? Moving your business to the next level starts with a positive work culture. You can give your employees a voice and make noticeable improvements in your company’s culture (and bottom line!) by focusing on four objectives and the concept of “Culture Teams.”

What you need to start a Culture Team:

  • 10-15% of your employees (a mixture of employees from all departments and levels)
  • 15 minutes each week (same time and day each week)
  • One leader per Culture Team (an employee who supports a positive atmosphere and can run a meeting efficiently)
  • Zero dollars

When the culture team meets, the goal will be to focus on 4 objectives and 4 objectives only: communication, engagement, teaching, and playing to win. If any topics are brought up that do not focus on these objectives, table them and discuss offline. You have 15 minutes, so efficiency and effectiveness are key!

If you have multiple stores or departments, consider setting up a culture team at each location.  Companies with multiple culture teams should have the culture team leaders meet once per month.

The value of a culture team will not go unnoticed.  Celebrate the successes and the ideas that are generated from the team.  Share before and after pictures and recognize the company’s openness to make changes based on employees’ suggestions.  Being a member of the Culture Team is a way to recruit and retain employees who want to make a difference (hint, hint… Millennials).

The Culture Team can also be your company sounding board.  If there is an issue going on in the company, reach out to the culture team(s) for feedback.  Something as big as reacting to a sales deficit or as small as needing an extra water cooler in a lunch room can be run through the culture teams.

Tip: The Culture Team Leader should be prepared to take certain ideas back to a designated manager who can help the culture team leader “explain the why” to the team if the idea cannot be implemented.

“Culture eats strategy for lunch.” – Peter Drucker

 

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Topics: Company Culture

Emily Showalter
Written by Emily Showalter

I have 10 years of experience managing all aspects of Human Resources for our company, which is made up of 400 employees over 6 locations. I am responsible for the full time and seasonal employee recruiting, hiring, compliance, employee relations, training and benefits programs and also am currently taking on the role of Chief Operations Officer for our sister company. I have served on the Board of Directors for our state nursery association, and also serve on the advisory board for various college and high school horticulture programs. I have earned my BS in Agriculture from The Ohio State University and completed a Masters Certificate Program this past year through Texas A&M University’s school of horticulture.

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About The Great Game of Business

Our approach to running a company was developed to help close one of the biggest gaps in business: the gap between managers and employees. We call our open-book approach The Great Game of Business. What lies at the heart of The Game is a very simple proposition: The best, most efficient, most profitable way to operate a business is to give everybody in the company a voice in saying how the company is run and a stake in the outcome. Let us teach you how to develop a culture of ownership, where employees think, act and feel like owners.