How to Create a Positive Impact in Your Organization

“Positive culture is a vital aspect of running a business–more than 50% of executives say corporate culture influences productivity, creativity, profitability, firm value, and growth rates.” - Bonfyre

An unhealthy workplace culture breeds negativity, poor performance, and at times, a highly toxic work environment for individuals. This can lead to a poor company reputation, high turnover, and low productivity.

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Your organizations culture is simply the sum of all team-level attitudes and ethics, and enthusiasm and we want your teams contribution to be as positive as possible.

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In order to effectively change workplace culture, there are two things you need to do:

1) You need to understand your team's culture. (Well, duh.)

Is there misalignment? Signs to look for:

• Colleagues don't align with the team/company's values, leading to frequent tension and conflict.
• The team can communicate its core values, attitudes, and assumptions, but their actions don't align with their words.

2) Create a plan & take action‍

• Start with you. Identify effective changes that you can make. Perhaps you've pushed off a few too many 1:1s? Commit to making every 1:1 from now on, and then tell them what you're doing and why you're doing it.
• Don't be afraid to ask for help from leadership or another manager who has a healthy team culture.
• Set clear and measurable goals that include incentives that motivate your team to follow your lead.
• Define desired behaviors and values to let everyone know what is expected.

This is sometimes a sensitive task, so keep the following in mind:

• Do not single out individuals in group meetings. This is embarrassing and uncomfortable for everyone.
• Don't rush or force your plan. A healthy culture will take time and large sudden changes can be scary to your team.
• You must be willing to listen to your teams feedback and change accordingly.

It's important to to take ownership of your team culture and we encourage you to assess yours. What's working? What isn't? How do you contribute? How can you change it for the better?