Four Ways to Make Sure Your Culture is by Design, Not Default

This post was originally published by CEO.com. 

Most CEOs see culture as their company’s version of an appendix: They don’t think much about it and accept it for what it is without purposeful design or active intervention.

While some “default cultures” do lead to functional workplaces, a lack of attention to environment opens the door to bad practices, negative vibes, and reduced productivity.

Why CEOs Ignore Culture

With all the consequences that can arise from a bad culture, why do 80 percent of companies leave their cultures to chance?

CEOs ignore culture because they view it as a soft, touchy-feely subject. Most executive leaders lend their focus to concrete subjects with hard, empirical data — strategies, expansion plans, machinery, equipment, etc. They prefer metric-based tasks through which they can measure their successes, passing over intangible topics like culture because they don’t believe the payoff is there.

Despite culture’s reputation as a fringe office perk, instilling the right one can produce higher income and better opportunities. Once a high-performing culture is free to thrive, it unleashes wave after wave of new ideas, empowering employees and inspiring them to go above and beyond the previous standard.

At our company, we prioritize an active, innovative culture that encourages and expects employees to contribute toward new projects and processes. Each employee spends 20 percent of his or her time in a Google-like “creation station” brainstorming new ideas.

That’s a full workday per week for every employee to set aside regular tasks and focus on experimentation. Without good culture, these expectations would feel like burdensome extra work, but our employees consistently rise to the challenge and enjoy the opportunities.

Culture By Design

Our company sometimes has trouble finding the right employees because we prioritize cultural fit during the hiring process. Once we find the right candidate, however, the impact to our company is immediately positive. After 60 years of finding the right people, we have learned a few things about building the right culture and bringing the best new hires into that environment. Here some steps you can follow:

1. Plan Deliberately

Don’t sit back and wait for cliques to form and priorities to develop through the paths of least resistance. Actively decide at the executive level the kind of cultural values you want the entire company to embody.

This will be (and should be) different from other companies, but at its core, your culture must both empower employees and facilitate high performance. Generating revenue — not warm and fuzzy feelings — is still your company’s main objective.

2. Create Crystal Clear Values

Make a detailed list of a few key traits upon which to base your culture. In our company’s case, we started with four but have expanded to seven values of ingenuity.

Start with a short list that resonates with everyone and build from there. Spotify links its culture tomusic, while Facebook’s values reflect its scrappy startup beginnings.

Make a point of instilling cultural values early, and they’ll become second nature to your employees.

3. Go Beyond Setting The Example

Senior leadership must eat, breathe, live, and openly exhibit your core values. Sending out an email listing your values isn’t nearly enough.

Employees need to see company culture trickle down from the highest level. If senior leadership can’t or won’t champion your chosen values, then reevaluate your choices.

4. Recognize And Reward

Celebrate employees who champion your culture and values. Offer rewards and recognition for exemplary value-driven behavior. At our company, we offer a $5,000 prize for the most innovative ideas, which led to members of our production team devising a way to trim a process down from four hours to just 16 minutes.

Culture is not a soft subject with negative ROI. Done right, a great culture will boost both morale and your bottom line.

Don’t give your culture the same amount of attention as your appendix. Design it deliberately, champion your values, and encourage your employees to do the same.