There’s a multitude of truisms about creating a great company workplace culture, like providing work-life balance, fostering a learning organization, nurturing solid teams, and so on. While many organizations espouse these values, many fall short of achieving a great workplace culture, and they aren’t sure why.
Nowadays, great workplace culture has the added dimension of being largely virtual for many companies.
According to Melissa Daimler, a Global Learning and Organizational Development professional, culture has three elements: behavior, systems, and practices, all guided by an overreaching set of values.
In a well-regarded Harvard Business Review article, she said,
“a great culture is what you get when all three of these align with the organization’s espoused values. When gaps start to appear, you start to see problems—and see great employees leave.
Behaviors
Daimler explains that many organizations fall short in how they embody their values and how explicitly they clarify the behaviors that reinforce or detract from those values. Of course, leaders must lead by example, and Daimler also points out that while there may be good intentions in an organization’s stated values, the follow-through matters.
For example, companies may espouse work-life balance but expect people to stay late every night; Daimler calls this a “behaviors system gap.” Your organization may claim to be a learning organization but not give people time to take classes or learn on the job; she calls this a “system behaviors gap.”
An example of a “behavior-practices gap” includes an organization that endorses building consensus but promotes people who are solely authoritative decision-makers.
Systems
Daimler suggests for your workplace culture to be thriving, your values must inhabit all systems such as hiring, strategy and goal setting, accessing, developing, and rewarding. Again, there should be clear examples of behaviors that support your values. Articulating clear and consistent behaviors within these systems contribute to solidifying the overall workplace culture.
Practices
Daimler defines practices as everything from company events to meetings, feedback processes, and how decisions get made. In her view, practices need to change as organizations change. But as with everything? Clear expectations of behavior in these processes (that align with corporate values) are essential to furthering workplace culture.
A great workplace culture is hard work
Daimler concludes that a positive workplace culture is the hard stuff to get right. It takes time to define and can be hard to execute. Her mantra is clarity by providing everyone with explicit examples that reinforce expectations and behaviors that matriculate throughout systems and practices.
Investing in aligning your values with behaviors, systems, and practices will help retain those great employees and attract new talent.
