On the back of a brilliant 12 months in 2022, and as a definite sign…
Discover what is meant by organisational culture, why it’s important, and how you can shape your own to create intention and grow your business.
Your workplace culture is a powerful ecosystem. It’s the heart and lifeblood of your people and business. And it matters.
With planning, energy, and commitment, you can help curate your people’s environment.
Read on to uncover the positive impact of organisational culture and five creative ways to improve your own.
Why is organisational culture important?
Organisational culture defines your business. It ultimately determines who wants to work for you and who wants to buy from you.
A cohesive and clear organisational culture enables you to respond to customer needs more effectively, innovate successfully and generate better results.
As Forbes tells us, “Companies (with) strong cultures experience an increase in revenue growth four times greater than those who don’t.”
It’s the “how we do things around here, and what it feels like.”
Recent findings from PwC also reiterate the importance of organisational culture, with 72% of respondents stating it helps successful change initiatives happen and 67% regarding it as more valuable than strategy and operations.
Yet, despite all the benefits of improving an organisation’s culture, knowing where to start is a different challenge altogether.
How to change your organisational culture for the better
- Ask this question
Ask this of yourself, and your c-suite: Is your existing culture the right one for the goals of your business? Listen carefully to the answers and reflect.
- Embrace intentional culture for good
Some leaders feel awkward about wanting to proactively shape their culture, but a purposeful culture that is properly curated with strategies, teams, continued conversations and deliberately created experiences is the new normal. Or to put it another way – if you leave your culture to chance, chances are your people might drift away.
Intentional culture is especially critical for international organisations. Individual regions may have powerful cultures that are very localised.
Nurturing a global culture with real intention can improve efficiency and deliver value for the big picture – so long as it also recognises and makes space for those local micro-cultures. In short, the best global organisational cultures operate with intention and adapt on purpose to stay relevant at a local level.
- Empower leaders to be advocates
Your leaders can be the greatest boost to company culture, with 83% of colleagues saying they are vital. So equip your leaders and managers and provide opportunities to role model culture, manage culture, and create culture consistency across the organisation.
- Choose an authentic and consistent message internally and externally
Organisational culture will be mirrored in the service your clients and customers receive. Essentially, your organisational ethos will ripple from the inside out, so should be aligned with the message you want to give to the outside.
As Marie Gulin-Merle, formerly of Calvin Klein, once said: “Customers can smell if there are two worlds.”
- Use an audit to take out the guesswork
Company culture will mean different things to different people. So how do you design a culture to resonate with every employee?
We’ve created a bespoke Culture Audit Tool based on the global conversations we’ve had, which we’d love to talk to you about.
Conducting a clear-sighted assessment and review will work wonders. Your starting point is to ask, ‘What culture do we have now?’ And if you’d like a thinking partner to help you through the process, we can help.
Let us help you improve your organisation’s culture
Now you know what is meant by organisational culture and have a starting point to make some positive changes in your company, it’s time to get to work.
At McCann Synergy, we’ve helped some of the biggest global brands cultivate cultures that empower them to grow in every way with our Consulting Suite. From discovery and definition to consultancy and design, we’re here to help you unleash the power of your people.
So, if you’re ready to shape your organisational culture with intention, get in touch with Blair Meyler via blair.meyler@mccannsynergy.com today to discuss our Culture Audit assessment tool.
