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How To Create A Great Company Culture

Forbes Agency Council

President of the Bradford Dalton Group, Jeff is a former journalist with 30+ years of experience as a public relations professional.

Do you want a company culture that attracts and retains great people? That motivates people to do their best and prevents burnout? That puts the joy back into going to work every day?

Every company has a culture, of course; it’s just that most are accidental. If you’re a particularly charismatic leader, your company might accidentally stumble into a wonderful culture. But accidental cultures are usually less than wonderful. It takes an intentional effort to design and build a great culture. It’s work, but worth it.

In my experience, building a strong culture is a matter of two things:

1. Agreeing on and adhering to specific values, and

2. Establishing a routine of actions that are guided by those values.

For example, at our firm, we live by three values:

• Hire smart people. Because learning is essential to growth, and everybody here wants to grow. Smart people are also more effective in doing a better job for our clients.

• Be proactive. Because we believe our job is to see what needs to be done and do it, not wait for a client to tell us what to do.

• Generate measurable results. Because clients pay us to make things happen, not just to talk about making things happen.

You can arrive at your own values by coming together as a whole company and having an honest conversation about what really matters to you and your clients. You’ll notice that our values are not particularly highfalutin. They are not about "truth, beauty and saving the world" like you might find in the annual reports and on lobby walls of a lot of big companies.

Your values should be honest and actionable. They should be ideas that you really rely on to run your business. They should serve as actual guideposts — not just words on a wall meant to impress visitors and that no one in the company can actually remember.

As a second step, it's important to live your values through a series of regular activities. Here are some ideas, and how we live our own values:

Quarterly Planning Sessions: During these sessions, we evaluate how well the company is living out its values, celebrate our successes and make plans to improve where we are deficient. Your plans should be specific with measurable outcomes so they actually drive results.

Fortnightly Progress Meetings: Every member of our company meets every two weeks with his or her superior to evaluate how well they are progressing toward their goals and, if corrective action is needed, to figure out what the employee and the company need to do to get back on path. Though these meetings are goal-directed, they also provide an opportunity for team members to regularly talk about how things are going and how they feel — so they feel listened to, and so management has an early warning of any trouble brewing so we can take action.

Daily Huddles: Every morning we all gather for a quick 5-10-minute standing meeting during which we report on how we are progressing on meeting our goals, talk about what is on our plate that day, ask for help if we need it, and state the one thing we will accomplish that day, no matter what. It’s amazing how such a simple daily meeting can create a sense of teamwork.

Celebrate Everyday Successes: Every time someone does something worth celebrating, everyone is encouraged to write it down on a slip of paper, note which of our three values this success evinces and put it up on our “kudos board.” Then, once a quarter, we take down all of the “kudos slips” and recognize the people who gave and received the most kudos. Winners get a chance to spin the “wheel of bliss” and win a prize, such as an Amazon gift card or a free day off with pay.

Carve Out Some Non-Work Team Time: At 4:30 every Friday afternoon, we stop working and gather in the kitchen at our office to share a beer or a glass of wine together and just enjoy each other’s company. Our "Beer Friday" is a great way to de-stress at the end of the week, and it also helps to create bonds that sustain us through tough times.

All of these actions have one thing in common: They are about trusting people — trusting that everyone wants what is best for the company, that they will bring their best to the company and that they will be honest with each other about what they want and what they need to deliver the best results to clients. It’s about treating people like the smart adults that they are. Because when it comes down to it, that’s what a great culture is: an atmosphere where people are treated with respect, where expectations are clear, where successes are celebrated and where problems are dealt with — not wished away.


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