Culture Doesn’t Come from the Top Down—It Comes From Everyone
Every culture is a set of unique and evolving relationships working toward a shared goal. It isn’t something you have, it is something you do. A healthy organizational culture is a healthy group, at scale. Culture does not come from the top down. It is built from inside of every work group. The healthier your work groups, the healthier your organizational culture as a whole.
Fostering a good culture is a top concern for 70% of executives (Evanta). However, when it comes to building culture, many people get a little stuck on exactly how. Culture can be hard for people to describe or enact because it is a felt experience. And that felt experience must be actively cultivated.
A healthy group or organizational culture:
Is difficult to copy
Allows you to adapt
Correlates with performance
Builds loyalty and commitment
Improves health and wellbeing
Increases engagement and retention
Culture building is the ongoing practice of fostering safety and belonging through vulnerability and purpose inside of every team and work group within an organization. Making a practice of noticing and naming your culture helps you determine where you are, where you want to be, and how to get there—together.
Pause for a moment and ask yourself these questions about your organization or group:
How do we describe our culture? How should it feel?
Do we actively create a sense of safety? How?
Do people here feel like they belong? Why or why not?
Does everyone here know our purpose and their role in fulfilling it?
Do people here feel like they can be vulnerable? Why or why not?
Do we communicate that we share a future? How?
Leaders are constantly trying to figure out how to create a healthy culture where people feel like they belong. Of course, there is not one answer. But the only way to find the answers is through ongoing open conversations around what is working and what is not working—with everyone. And people must feel safe in these conversations. Psychological safety is feeling one can speak up without risk of punishment or humiliation. It is an important factor in high-quality decision making, healthy group interactions, and feelings of cultural connection.
A culture that promotes psychological safety and belonging:
Focuses on developing real relationships outside of the tasks at hand
Is direct and honest (think radical candor, not brutal honesty)
Sends belonging cues: personal connection, honest feedback, big picture perspective
Promotes fallibility and appreciation
Overcommunicates listening and care
Creates a space for every voice
Don't leave culture to chance in the workplace. Create the conditions for people to thrive, together. As with all things relational, culture is built one conversation and one action at a time.