“Culture eats strategy for breakfast”. I only recently became aware of this wise sentence uttered by management guru Peter Drucker, and I couldn’t agree more.
Organizational culture so often seen as a mere element of management theories advocated in the 20th century. XX, has gained its place in the shadows in the recent past with companies and mass marketing. The popularity gained by voices such as Simon Sinek and Satya Nadella greatly contributed to the well-being, satisfaction and quality of employees no longer being a mere marketing campaign and appearing at the forefront of management’s concerns
Endomarketing, known as the set of strategies and practices that aim to improve the well-being and motivation of employees within companies, is now a daily practice. However, I am still confronted almost daily with ideas and the pragmatism of managers for whom a healthy culture is not a priority at the moment because what matters now are sales and the customer. It is obvious that sales and the customer should always be at the top of priorities but one does not invalidate the other. Let’s not forget that whoever is in contact with the customer, who are the greatest ambassadors of the company (for better or for worse), who solve problems or add value at a given moment in the customer’s journey are the employees. If they are not motivated and satisfied, they can negatively impact the “priorities” of the moment : sales and customers.
Simon Sinek perfectly illustrates the responsibility of today’s leaders, “leaders are not responsible for the customers, they are responsible for the people who are responsible for the customer”.
Here are just 3 suggestions for creating a healthy culture that can be applied across companies regardless of their size:
1. Events within the company
Whether it’s weekly lunches where everyone gets together, workshops or cultural meetings, the objective is to hold events that allow the social development of the teams and that can always add some kind of knowledge for the employees.
2. Communication
Transparency is now the queen when it comes to communication within organizations. The communication structure within the company must be properly defined, not only for everyone to be aware of what is happening, but also for everyone to know what they need to do so that their information reaches the various departments.
3. Happy Hour
In one of the communication agencies I worked with, Friday at 5:30 pm was beer time, it was forbidden to talk about work and the only objective was to relax and be able to unwind with those who fight side by side every day to give their best for the company. It is important to know how to work and just as or more important is knowing how to celebrate an accomplished objective.
What other practical suggestions would you add to improve the culture of organizations?
By Vasco de Matos Ramos
Vasco Ramos 