How to create culture statements that are genuinely who you are.

We all know how important having a genuine company culture is! Your company culture is what people see, it’s the way your customers would describe your company and team, and it’s the way your team would describe themselves and how they act together. Culture statements are the 5-10 statements that you and your team develop to summarize your company culture. Your culture statements are how you describe “the way we do things around here”. Let me help you TODAY create these statements that are genuinely who you are!

The first time I had culture statements they were sent down from head office. I didn’t know them or care about them. We had them in a manual and people would start their jobs, sign a contract, and never read their  manuals and therefore never read or understand the culture statements! I didn’t even know them, let alone live them out or share them with my team. However, that was 22 years ago, a long time ago, and I know better now! 

If you have culture statements, great! If not, now is your chance to create them! Remember, the goal of your culture statements is to help you & your team be happy, motivated, productive, and effective. In turn, having a solid company culture is going to help your customers have great experiences and want to come back again and again. Having a GREAT company culture could even become your unique selling proposition.

Culture statements are completely useless if your team isn’t on board. If you are an established business and are introducing culture statements, you need to read my blog about championing change. You will need to introduce the idea of culture statements and help your team, starting with key leaders, understand why culture is so important. 

We have culture statements and we ARE our culture statements. My teams live out our culture statements and many of the people on my teams helped create them! You want your team involved! My coach, Brendan Burchard says, “People support what they help create”.

GET YOUR TEAM INVOLVED IN CREATING CULTURE STATEMENTS

Whether you have a team of 2 or a team of 250, get everyone involved in creating your culture statements! HOW? Send out a survey, do it at a staff meeting, have leaders brainstorm with their teams, and then get all the leaders together, with a big team maybe do it at a staff meeting and have table groups. Get creative! Think outside the box! Now, just because you have a lot of people give input, you will have to make the final decision ultimately with a smaller team of people. As a side note: if having a staff meeting is going to hurt your team, if they’re already disengaged and have bad attitudes, you need to create the statements and share them. You can always have conversations with each leader, and then they can have conversations with their team members, to get their opinions and change the culture. It may take a while, but it will be absolutely worth it. 

Always be clear about the process and share that with your teams! You will want them aware that just because they share something doesn’t mean it will end up being one of the culture statements. But you try your best to incorporate everyone’s ideas into a maximum of 10 general “rules“ for your culture statements. If people feel like their ideas are not heard, they will not give a hoot about your culture statements.

If you have a negative culture, then you are going to be creating culture statements that will inspire your team to come together, to be positive, to love their workplace, and to help them understand what is expected from them!

STEP BY STEP CREATING CULTURE STATEMENTS

Get in a creative mindset!

Think about what you want your organization to be. Daydream. Think about your mission and vision! How do you want to show up to work? How do you want your team to show up? What is important to you, your team, and your customers? How do you want everyone involved to treat others and to be treated themselves? 

Jot down your ideas, draw them out on a whiteboard, share them with someone important to you, do whatever you need to do to be inspired, and step into this process with the energy to inspire your team! You need to ensure that you SHOW UP with a great mindset, always prepared, and with positive energy!

Get your people involved.

1. Set a time to meet with your leaders. Share with them your desire to create culture statements. Get them on board, they’re HUGE in championing change with their teams. Let them have some time to think about the current culture and where they want to go!
2. Set a time to brainstorm with your entire team. Previous to this meeting, ensure your team is prepared.
   1. Send an email beforehand so that team members know what to expect at the meeting and share an agenda – all great meetings have an agenda. 
   2. In a concise email, share the purpose of the meeting!
   3. Share a few questions that your team can be thinking about.
3. Host a brainstorming meeting and get your people engaged! This brainstorming time will look different for each company based on size and team dynamics. If you are meeting with a team of fewer than 25 people, I’d say grab a whiteboard marker and just have people shout things out and have one of your team members write them down! If your team is bigger, this is where you might do table groups for brainstorming, or have department meetings and brainstorm.
   1. Ask your leaders to show up with energy and enthusiasm!
   2. Print off or share the vision and mission with your team.
   3. Bring materials needed to effectively hear from your entire team. Whether that is facilitating a big group discussion and writing ideas on a whiteboard, or having leaders run table groups where they will come up with their top 3 ideas of what’s important to them.
   4. Ask different people to help out with writing on the board, handing out or collecting materials, or welcoming people!
   5. Make this time FUN, and ENCOURAGING!
   6. During the meeting, simply BRAINSTORM, think of things, and write them down essentially! Don’t put them in any order or organize them yet! You might want to prompt your team with some questions to get them thinking, see below!

Ask great questions throughout this process.

• How do you want others to feel at work?
• How do you want to feel at work?
• When your customers come in, what kind of experience do they have? Who would they say we are as a team? Would they say that they get excellent customer service? Would they say that they’re always treated with kindness? 
• What do you want this workplace to feel like? 
• What are some rules that you think we should all (especially leaders) follow while we are working? 

Compile the culture statements.

Take time after brainstorming to group the words and phrases. Find themes and defining actions that stick out. Maybe there were a lot of people who said something about wanting to be kind, treat people with kindness, or that customers often comment on how nice everyone is! If things stick out, they’re important! You are aiming to have 5-10 succinct, clear, short statements that you can share with your team, and live by for the foreseeable future. 

LIVING OUT YOUR CULTURE STATEMENTS

There are a few important keys to having your team support and invest in the culture statements. After you’ve established the need for culture statements and their purpose with your team, you will utilize your culture statements in virtually all areas of your business. Here are a few of the ways and areas we use our culture statements every day.

• IT STARTS WITH THE LEADER || Always, in all ways, live out your culture statements. Your culture statements are the standard that everyone is held to, and if you do not role model them, you cannot expect anyone else to. 
• HIRING || Each existing team member and every new team member needs to agree to your culture statements in writing! In our hiring process, asking potential candidates their thoughts about your culture statements is very early on in the process. If they have an issue with the culture statements it is 100% not going to work, don’t continue the process in any way.
• ONBOARDING || Ensure that the onboarding process includes going through the culture statements as well as the mission and vision. Additionally, use it in your 30, 60, and 90-day check-ins with new team members. 
• KPI MEETINGS || You (or someone from your leadership team) will see each of your team members every month. This is a great time to check in with how they feel about the culture statements.
• GENERAL MEETINGS || In my businesses, we start every meeting by either appreciating each other, sharing what each person is thankful for, or sharing and talking about a culture statement. You can cover your culture statements every day, in your daily meetings. Discuss how the culture statements are permeating your culture and being followed by each person.
• COACHING || This is how you can help people rise and step into greater things! They know that they are held to these standards, so you can use these statements to coach them in almost any situation you face with your teams!  Leaders, don’t forget that questions are your superpower as a leader!
• SHARE || You can share your culture statements as appropriate with your customers. Post them around your building for everyone to be reminded of often!

Don’t wait until things are “back on track” or until things “calm down”. Do these things today and be on your way to working with a more motivated, enthusiastic, and effective team!

If you have questions about how to create your culture statements OR business questions in general. I would love to answer them. In our exclusive VIP Mastermind group, myself, my team, and my team of business experts answer all of your business questions, all week so that you can focus on your most valuable activities and move your business forward every day! Check it out here if you’re interested in becoming a strategic and inspiring leader, mastering your financials, or becoming an expert marketer!