3 Ways to creating culture in your company

The company culture is what makes your business unique and makes you stand out.

In addition to the Company purpose (the what you do), Companies need a Vision.  It is the Company’s ‘why and how’ that sets the tone, the vision, the aspirations and therefore the culture.

To have a truly engaged and inclusive culture in your company you should have three things.

1. A clearly defined and inspirational Vision
2. Clear Values that relate to your Vision (these are the principles and ethics which you want your company to be known for)
3. Action related Behaviours – you need to ensure that all your values can be translated into behaviours. How do you want all the people in your company to behave – within your company and to your customers?

So how do we create these?

Jewel’s Top Tips

1. Involve EVERYONE in your company when you are creating Vision, Values and Behaviours. Too often these are created by the Senior Leadership Team and then told to the staff. If you want a truly engaged and committed culture that your staff (at any level) wants to be part of, you need to have them involved in the creation of your company’s Vision, Values and Behaviours.
2. Vision statements should be short, to the point and INSPIRING.  Examples are:

   Developing Brilliance in People, Teams and Business

   To accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy

   To make People Happy

   Doing more good with Digital

   To embrace the human spirit and let it fly

   To be the most creative organisation in the world

3. When creating Vision, Values and Behaviours with the staff make sure you use THEIR words and language.  If it gets turned into “management speak” then staff will disengage from the process.Values should be MEMORABLE. Values can be remembered by aligning them to a mnemonic memory aid.  The Jewel Team created these using the mnemonic DIAMOND. 
4. Behaviours are the ACTIONS that all staff DO to live the Values.  They should be specific and tangible so you know when they are being adhered to.
   For example, if TRUST is one of your values, then the question to identify the Behaviours would be – How do we demonstrate Trust with each other and our customers? Behaviours linked to this include – doing what we say we will do, following up on our promises etc    We recommend 3 – 5 statements that relate to each value. 
    
5. Once Vision, Values and Behaviours have been defined they need to be embedded into EVERYTHING  you do in the company. Such as:
   • Have Vision and Values up on walls in meeting rooms, corridors, on stairways and of course on your front page of your website.
   • Refer to Behaviours in all your performance management systems.  Have them written into job descriptions, create a ‘code of conduct’ and put in inductions and make sure they are embedded into your appraisal and one to one process.
   • Remember to link Values and Behaviours into every meeting that you hold.  They should become part of your language in your company.
   • Show off your Vision, Values and Behaviours to your customers, stakeholders, suppliers – it’s your culture – be proud of it.
   • When developing your learning and development strategy for your staff use Value words and Behaviours to underpin your development process.

If you like these tips and would be interested in Jewel coming into your business to help facilitate a Vision, Values and Behaviours workshop or want to learn how to do this by attending our next ILM Level 5 Certificate in Leadership & Management qualification please contact us.

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