How to Develop Strong Culture

In Reed Hasting’s No Rules Rules he defines culture as a group’s particular way of life. I like that definition and in this post want to answer the question: How do I develop my group’s particular way of life?

1. Codify your culture. Before you can model your culture, teach it to others, reward it or hold staff accountable for breaking it, you must first write it down. It’s hard for people to be on the same page if that page doesn’t exist. So spend a few months observing your own behavior. Every time you make a decision according to some principle or pithy saying (i.e. make a purchase by the standard “quality, not extravagance”) write it down. Once you have a robust list of the little says and principles you live by, sort through them to see which are most important to you.
2. Teach your culture. Once you’ve codified it, it’s time to begin systematically teaching it to your team. You may do an introductory lesson where you give the overview of the top ten principles or sayings you want your team to live by, then you might spend the following ten weeks doing a deep dive on each item. Even then, you’re not done. You have to return to these topics over and over, finding creative ways to say the same things over and over, year after year. If you teach it once and expect it to stick, you will be sorely disappointed.
3. Model your culture. Once you teach it you have to be very intentional about modeling it. As they say, “More is caught than taught.” Your team will do what you do, not what you say. So as important as it is to say it, it’s even more important to model it. Your staff should be able to watch you and learn how to live our culture.
4. Reinforce your culture. You can do this through reward and accountability. When you see your staff living out your culture, be quick to reward it. You can reward with public/private verbal praise, with cash, with extra time off or in any number of ways. It’s important to reward because “What gets rewarded, gets repeated” and “What you celebrate, you duplicate.” But just as important as it is to reward people for practicing culture, it’s equally important to hold staff accountable when they don’t. When your staff are living out culture, be quick to praise. But when they are not, be quick to correct. This is the heart of Ken Blanchard’s One Minute Manager (quick to praise, quick to correct) and both are important aspects of reinforcing culture.