Feedback as a shortcut to shift your company culture

Recently I spent some time elaborating on the importance of proactively and continuously aligning the purpose, vision and strategy of an organisation to the choices we make on what we do and the goals we set for ourselves on every level of the organisation. People naturally would like to contribute to something bigger. Relating what they do with the mission of the organisation creates an environment of involvement and collaboration.

Another equally powerful aspect besides the relatedness to the purpose, vision and strategy for employee engagement and retention are the values of an organisation and to what extent the values that live and motivate an organisation meet with our own values: what is important for me, what is important for my team, for my organisation, for society?

Values are an integral part of our company culture and if you would like to start shaping the identity of an organisation, you need to shape its values. Is what you do in line with the company values you would like to be associated with and are the employees of your organisation representing those values as well? Promoting certain values in an organisation leads to promoting certain behaviors. Bonus points: it creates a sense of belonging and camaraderie. How many times have you heard: “my work is all right but the company culture is great, this is why I love it here? Or, the opposite - e.g. reviews on Glassdoor about “toxic” cultures which really hits an organisation if they want to attract new talent…

Where to start though: as usual, I would vouch for doing a company values exercise on different levels and in collaboration: get curious, do some workshops and interviews with execs, your team members, your team leaders and discover what their personal values are, what is really important to them, what in the company vision and culture they already like and is important to keep etc? Start spotting patterns and come up with your set of values which you would start promoting actively. And by promoting actively, I don't mean to just do some lovely marketing materials and distribute a few t-shirts. That would be nice but the effort goes beyond that: how could you encourage that people live those values day in and day out and what could you put in place if people do not live those company values. Spoiler alert: “punching them with a stick” would not work and can even have reverse effects.

What works is FEEDBACK. If there is only one thing you can afford to focus on when implementing a cultural shift is a culture which encourages employees at all levels to give and receive feedback: a culture where open, transparent, and continuous communication is valued, a culture which fosters a safe space for employees to express their thoughts, voice concerns, and exchange ideas where this is seen as a natural and essential part of professional development and growth. 

Let me give you a secret to succeed in this based on my years of experience in building a feedback culture in organisations: yes, of course, you can hire me or another person to deliver a program in your organisation for your employees and as there are plenty of other important things for the business and restricted budget, you will decide NOT to offer this to your senior leaders. I will advise differently: either make it available to everyone in your organisation or make it available to the leaders in your organisation who will start role modeling this behavior and be your catalyst for feedback culture. 

Be prepared: as a catalyst, it's not going to be always easy and loads of people may challenge you with the status quo: “Oh, we do not have a good culture of feedback around here. Nothing will ever change”. Well, be ready to challenge that person back as the culture is formed by the people, their values, beliefs and behaviors and the shift starts with every single person in that organisation. 

Are you ready to promote feedback, accountability, learning, and adaptation which will ultimately lead to higher employee engagement, improved productivity and a stronger, more resilient organisation? 

I am excited for you and available to help.

Reference 

A previous article on constructive feedback:

https://www.mandercoaching.co.uk/blog-3-1/constructive-feedback-nbsp-negative-feedback