At a recent
educational breakout session I attended, the speaker, Courtney Kiss, spoke of creating an
atmosphere where your staff can make a difference and change the culture of
your organization and in turn your community.
It's about
building a culture that everyone has a voice and has the ability to change
things from where they are in the organization.
It cannot happen in a vacuum.
The top
three key things that jumped out at me that may also work for you and your
organization that the Courtney mentioned are:
- Improve on what you already have - there is no need to start from scratch.
- Try something new - and this does not have to be a big thing, it can be small or it could be large.
- At the end of the day, it's about thinking differently - people who challenge the status quo.
Who drives
the culture?
Management - buy-in from the top or who manages
people. It doesn't have to start at the
top, but the top has to support.
Leaders - and that doesn't just mean the
person with the title but the individuals that can inspire, constructive
critique, and support (you will always have failure from time to time but the
leader gives support and fail-forward. The leader can reinforce the message.
HR - supports the entrepreneurial culture through hiring and
maybe even the review process and a consistent reinforced communication to all staff.
Benefits of
an Entrepreneurial Culture
- More innovation
- Employee satisfaction - you are giving staff a platform to be heard
- Employee advocacy - great PR
How do you
Build It (10 Key Things)
- Embrace passion, share your passion
- Allow the right amount of autonomy
- Avoid homogeneity
- Be brave and radical
- Be patient with the process and timing
- Small is ok (learn as you go)
- You need to be ok with failure (you need to learn from it)
- Celebrate the successes
- You need to make way for change (you need to allow it to happen)
- Transparency is critical (share the most information you can from where you stand)
Some Action Items to Create this Entrepreneurial Culture
- Create focus groups within your staff
- Utilize the technology you have (Dropbox or a comment box, etc. to get new ideas)
- Get your folks to talk to others outside your organization
- Create a competition
- Host a lunch with your staff to hear ideas but give it context
The good news
is that it’s not expensive to change a culture, improve efficiencies, or the
opportunity to make more people happy at work!
