Building group culture
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Remember group projects in school?
Some of the most creative and fun projects I ever worked on were group projects. Everyone worked hard together, contributed and added their various strengths and perspectives.
But they were also some of the most frustrating projects. Ones where everyone wanted to work separately. Or people just wouldn't work at all. In college, one of my "co-scholars" announced upfront, "I'm not interested in this—so don't count on me to do anything."
Over time, I learned that many group projects were like this latter experience. Especially if we were graded as a group. Too many people were willing to let just a few others do all the work.
I have never understood that attitude.
I like being a part of a high-performing group, but those are rare. They often devolve into a group of high performers—and even in those cases—not everyone actually performs.
Team norms and organizational culture
These groups were early experiences with organizational cultures.
Eventually, I learned about various models that try to describe the stages of team formation. You may have heard of the famous: Forming, storming, norming, performingteam development sequence. This was originally coined by psychologist Bruce Tuckman back in 1965.
What Tuckman (and all the other models) observed is a process that teams need to go through and complete to finally reach performance.The storming and norming phases are descriptions of how group culture is wrestled over and finally accepted.
Culture (described with the sociological term norms)is key to group performance.
But not all cultures are created equal.
Ideal cultures are cultured
In school, our groups were usually slapped together. We just had to survive the experience.
Once in a while, there were the happy accidents. We quickly figured out how to work together. Many times, however, the project never got beyond the stormingphase.
It's hard for a small group to predictably build an ideal culture. Especially one that is enjoyable and high-performing. It's even hard for a larger organization. Even when a happy accident occurs, and it does sometimes, it won't be sustained accidentally.
Ideal cultures are created and sustained on purpose.
Culture is more than good feelings
Many leaders misunderstand the importance of workplace culture.Because it is a "soft" topic—it's often perceived to be the solution for "soft" problems.
In fact, the right workplace culture has a dramatic effect on "hard" issues as well. It directly impacts things like:
- Safety and workers compensation claims
- Litigation and complaints
- Mistakes and failure work
- Turnover
- Process efficiency
- Customer service
- Innovation and decision making
All of which impact the bottom line. As well as the "soft" issues such as enjoying showing up to work on Monday morning.
Not all ideal cultures look the same, but they have the same ingredients.
Ideal cultures can look many different ways. But they share the same set of dynamics or ingredients.
Most tend to emphasize a few of these dynamics more than others. But if any of these ingredients are missing, the ideal culture will be difficult to sustain.
The 6 ingredients of ideal work cultures
Here's how to attract the best people and produce the best performance.
- Values-based:Most organizations have something like a value statement. But few organizations are intentional about their values and basing their decisions and behaviors on them. Those who do perform better.
- Active alignment:The leaders in the highest performing organizations emphasize alignment. They align their values and vision with their priorities, strategy, practices and policies. Alignment improves communication, reduces conflict, reduces management effort and focuses resources.
- Ownership and accountability:The best organizations create ownership cultures. This includes a sense of pride and responsibility. Additionally, they regularly talk about their commitments, goals, progress, challenges and successes. That's another way of saying they practice being accountable.
- Creates safety:It's impossible to have the kinds of conversation required to be values-based, create alignment and be accountable if talking about hard issues doesn't feel safe. Safety doesn't emerge from cultures where disagreement is avoided and all potential triggers are purged. It comes from leaders who practice showing respect, listening, stay curious, admit their own mistakes. A sense of safety emerges when people experience resolved disagreements and conflict—not from avoiding them.
- Growth-focused but performance-oriented:Ideal cultures are able to hold the tension between growth and performance. They understand that success is larger than mere accomplishment. But at the same time, all organizations exist to accomplish a purpose. The best companies nurture the growth of their people expecting that it'll contribute to performance.
- Nimble and experimental:Ideal cultures avoid falling in love with their methods. They are focused on their vision. This allows them to adjust and flex methods and approaches as need be.
So, would you rather build a high-performing group or try to lead a group of high performers?
 | Christian Muntean is a seasoned expert in fostering business growth and profitability. With a Master's degree in Organizational Leadership and certifications as a Master Coach, Certified Exit Planning Advisor (CEPA), and International Mergers & Acquisitions Expert (IM&A), he guides entrepreneurial leaders through growth, succession planning, and exit strategies. He is an accomplished author of three books, including Train to Lead. Christian resides in Anchorage, Alaska, with his family. Learn More » |
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