The Long Game

“He was the first person that the customer bumped into, and he was the cleaner. He genuinely loved his job, embraced the company culture, and talked a great story about our work." We hear about culture a lot, but it is rare to find a company work culture that spreads through the whole organisation, right to the cleaners, support crew, or technicians. However, as the comment above illustrates, it is doable. The comment was made to me during a session I did with a senior executive team. The team was excited to see that their client got the perfect snapshot of what their company was all about by one of their greatest ambassadors who happened to be their cleaner. What an amazing asset this ambassador is to their organisation. Companies spend a great deal of time articulating their culture around purpose, values, and vision to describe the work of the company and its people. Not only do we need to articulate the DNA of a company, we must do it in such a way that it can be remembered and repeated, not just now, but throughout the long game. We must continuously market it at every layer of the business, so it becomes as well-known and intrinsic as the company name itself. As David Heinemeier Hansson co-founder of Base Camp and author of the bestseller Rework said recently on The Mojo Radio Show, "cultures are created by looking retrospectively but are executed during every hour of every day of every week for years to come." Culture is an action not just words. Sadly too many companies have meaningless statements that look great on a wall but are never lived, let alone believed by team members. They are designed and sound great for the first 30 days until they get swept aside by the routine and the next urgent thing on our to-do list. Rather, let's play the long game. © GB