Team building is one of the top strategies for successful execution of tasks, goals, changes and more within your organization, but your company’s culture is the foundation for these activities to be effective. Because culture is so essential for success, Glassdoor.com ranks companies based on their culture and values.
Glassdoor.com allows employees to provide unsolicited comments and reviews for organizations across all industries, and it bases its ratings on employee opinions regarding the work environment, as well as the approval ratings of CEOs. Job satisfaction, company culture, work-life balance, corporate values, compensation and benefits are also included in the ratings.
There are many other articles written on the importance of company culture, and this article references the following articles: 3 Subtle Ways to Create a Culture of Openness and Your Secret Weapon in Business: Culture .
The following tips offer actionable items to promote effective team building and company culture within your organization.
Transparency is crucial. According to 3 Subtle Ways to Create a Culture of Openness, transparency is important on both an internal and an external level. Creating a culture of openness and understanding reduces gossip, paranoia and pointless speculation among team members, as well as by those outside of the organization. By focusing on useful communication skills on all levels of your organization, you will be better able to get your message across clearly and hold team members accountable for their assigned tasks, as all team members should understand the overall direction of the company. The team development clinic, 6 Principles That Build High Performance Teams, goes into how to create a culture of openness in detail.
Consider an open layout. Along with transparency comes the idea of an open office layout. By allowing team members of all levels (including those at the very top) to work side-by-side, you will likely find a collaborative spirit that may not otherwise have existed. Team members across the organization can cross the invisible line between ranks and departments and help one another solve problems as they arise.
Regularly check on culture. According to Your Secret Weapon in Business: Culture, a company’s culture affects its competiveness in the industry, which means that your company’s culture is an important foundation for your success. With such a significant aspect for success, it is important to regularly check in on your company’s culture to make sure you are staying on the right track. One source is a powerful behavior 360 survey that measures the level of trust, interdependence, genuineness, empathy, risk and success within the team dynamic.
Find the experts. With any aspect of running a business, it is important to note when you can handle the situation yourself and when you need to hire an expert. There are many benefits to seeking outside consultation, including gaining access to proven methods and unique insights into your personal situation. A leadership team-building event, such as the 6 Principles That Build High Performance Teams, can offer valuable team-building strategies that are based on the core values of trust, interdependence, genuineness, empathy, risk, and success (TIGERS).
“Cultivating culture takes a tremendous amount of effort both in designing great values and sticking to them,” said Will Staney, head talent warrior at Glassdoor. “To be recognized by employees for these efforts is a true honor and I’m happy to celebrate the companies that have achieved this status.”
No matter your organization’s current stage, your company’s culture will affect every task, project and team building strategy that you tackle, so it is important to create a culture that will best represent your values and long-term goals.
Copyright TIGERS Success Series by Dianne Crampton
About TIGERS Success Series
TIGERS is an Oregon Team Building Consultant situated in Bend, Oregon that serves leaders through out North America. Founder, Dianne Crampton, has helped leaders build collaborative work cultures and high performance teams for over 20 years. She offers team development clinics to HR Executives, Project Managers, Consultants and Business Executives who desire high levels of collaboration within their operations and was nominated by Merrill Lynch for Inc. Magazines small business awards for her unique approaches to assisting mergers and acquisitions. She licenses HR executives in the use of her proprietary methods.
