In my medium-term professional life of nearly 20 years, I have experienced the rolling hills of good and bad workplace culture. In many companies the term “culture” is often thrown about by HR for hokey team-building exercises, but is rarely well defined. It is one of those emotional terms people instinctively feel is either good or bad. Culture is a complicated equation with multiple input variables like diversity, financial footing, and ideology that hopefully outputs success. The most positive and successful company cultures have the following high-level attributes.
An open atmosphere that encourages creative thought.
In the consulting world, we live and die by our creativity. The freedom to express an idea in a group brainstorming session is critical. Even a bad idea (I’ve had more than a couple) has the potential to inspire someone else into a winning concept. When employees are encouraged to express themselves, free of a creative dictator who bullies meetings, the best ideas quickly rise to the top because nothing is held back.
A diverse group of people who can look at a challenge from multiple angles.
Diversity obviously plays a key role in creativity and culture. The best ideas come from people with the farthest reaching experiences. Staffing people from different corporate, social, and interest backgrounds produces the most diverse concepts because the pool of knowledge is that much bigger. A great company culture needs a broad spectrum of viewpoints to both develop great products and provide an interesting workplace.
Cross-functional teams uninhibited by psychological or physical walls.
Once the key people are in place, the internal teams need to work together. This is probably the single largest hurdle to positive corporate culture in large organizations. I can swing a hammer with the best of them, but milling a precision slip fit is a totally different issue. I need to know where to go and who to see for the optimal solutions to my problems. Physical barriers like separate buildings or even high cubical walls often compartmentalize people and unintentionally nudge employees into “defending their space” instead of valuing the people they work with. An openness and mutual cooperation can naturally develop when groups of talents (like engineers and designers) are mixed in one location and interact face to face on a daily basis. Innovation does not stop at boundaries, it overcomes them.
A means for a group and individuals to control productivity.
An often underestimated catalyst to a positive company culture is a department budget. Speaking as an engineer, we need tools to most efficiently do our work. A budget we can spend as we see fit (free of multiple approval signatures) is wonderfully liberating. It improves productivity by allowing employees to purchase tools they are excited to learn while making their jobs easier. Shiny new toys also have the added benefit of keeping people engaged while at the same time improving the company’s overall capability.
An internal quality/regulatory system that puts the idea first.
A positive culture is also fostered by an internal development system free of creative impediments. There is nothing more inspiration killing than the thought of forms, signatures, and cross-functional team approvals that need to be navigated before pencil can even be put to paper. Without question, standards and internal quality requirements are critical to manufacturing safe and effective products, but at the knife’s edge of concept creation there should be total freedom. That is by far one of the best parts of working for a consultancy. Our internal procedures were created around the framework of unimpeded development. Creativity comes first.
Contrary to the musings of academics, there is no set path to a utopian society. Human beings are wonderfully unique in thought, passions, and personality, but there are a few simple building blocks companies can put into place to foster a positive corporate culture. Leveraging the unique qualities of individuals to work together toward a common goal can be achieved when they are motivated, feel they have some control of their destiny, and are free to express themselves.
