Culture Adjustments for a Changing Workplace
In March 2020, for many organizations, the meaning of “the workplace” changed due to the COVID-19 epidemic. As the virus continued through flare-ups and mutations, companies began to focus on changing their ‘future of work’ in uncertain times. Since March of 2019, investments were made in IT infrastructure; remote hiring and onboarding strategies were refined; policies, procedures, and practices were updated; and people changed jobs, moved teams, and changed the way they accomplish work. Yet, the investment needed to translate workplace culture to the new ways of working seems to lag.
Every organization and team has its own personality and atmosphere, its own rhythms and rituals; generically speaking this is its culture. Workplace culture is the shared rules (formal and informal), values, beliefs, and attitudes that inform how things are done and how people interact with the work, with their colleagues, and with their customers.
Workplace culture will develop whether we pay attention to it or not. It is implicitly transmitted by modeled behaviors and expressions of values in the workplace. It develops organically over time, influenced by factors like who we hire, how we work, and how teams get things done. New employees learn the “how” partially from policies and procedures, and also from observations of formal and informal practices.
As the workplace changes — becoming more remote, dispersed, or a hybrid — culture will change over time. The same implicit signals exist, but they’re harder to detect and interpret, requiring culture work to be more even deliberate if we are to change or even maintain our corporate culture. We can do nothing, adjust to reinforce existing culture or use the opportunity to change the culture.
Vision, Mission, & Values Alignment.
There is nothing like an invisible, deadly threat to human life spreading around the globe to create disruption to the shared purpose created by a clear vision, mission, and values. Corporate values, missions, and visions are meant to engage employees, persuading them to go beyond. The clear definition and behaviors that were obvious pre-pandemic could be rocky or have completely eroded. The shared purpose of the team may have shifted to survival mode and that means not stepping up, in some industries that may mean not even showing up because the underlying purpose no longer meets the moment. Check-in with how the organization and teams are demonstrating who they are, how they work, and how they grow to ensure it remains consistent with the vision, mission, and values. Aligning these elements with the new way of working allows employees to reconnect to a shared purpose.
Engage Deliberately.
It is important to speak directly about the intent to maintain or change the culture in a changing work environment, and speak more often about what it does and does not look like in the workplace. Leaders should talk with senior staff and team leaders about the kind of culture they are looking to build/maintain. Team leaders should speak with their teams about the behaviors and outcomes they expect to see based on the collective values, attitudes, beliefs, and expectations of how the team should work and how work should get done. Everyone can then take part in finding ways to manifest it throughout working interactions. Think big and small, there are many factors that can make a difference.
Set & Reset Communication expectations.
As the culture changes and adjusts in a less connected, more remote workplace, it is critical to make sure communication adjusts to foster the necessary relationships between people, teams, and tasks. What, where, and how information is shared has to rely less on word of mouth or someone happening upon the information. Cultural transference in the office is based partially on observation; in a remote and distributed workplace, this becomes more difficult. Foster new behaviors and practices that reinforce relationship building and quality information exchange broadly across the organization.
Reinforcement the Culture.
As the organization and teams manage culture changes or maintenance for the new workplace, update how the team recognizes and rewards behavior and outcomes that reinforce the culture. Evaluate the performance management process; does it include feedback on cultural alignment. Evaluate the rewards and incentives; ensure they strengthen the connection between how we should do things and the desired outcomes.
If the culture markers are left out of the activities and events that engage and motivate employees, the expectations may be ignored in the way team members choose to show up, engage with others, and meet business outcomes.
Culture emerges, develops, and evolves as the team, the organization, the customer, and the business environments change. As your organization adjusts to meet the new workplace demands of COVID-19 and whatever might come after it, make sure to actively manage your culture through vision, mission, and values alignment; deliberate and clear communication; and reinforcements that support the desired culture. Make your organization more resilient to changes by investing in your workplace culture. Don’t rely on going back to the way things were as the reason for letting your culture languish.
About The Author
LaTanya Walker is a consultant whom emphasizes the value of managed organizational change and the alignment of people, processes, and systems to build effective teams and organizations. With over 20 years of experience in project management, change management, and organizational effectiveness, LaTanya has the expertise to support organizations through transformational change.
Originally published at https://www.wyld.work on February 8, 2022.
