2020 Is the Decade of Culture-First Organizations

Is yours ready?

Workplace culture is getting the attention it deserves, but it still needs to become a business priority.

I’m not a fan of end of year predictions. However, I couldn’t but celebrate when I read that Glassdoor anticipates that 2020 will begin a culture-first decade for organizations. Considering its proprietary data, including millions of company reviews, it makes a lot of sense.

There’s still a long way to go for CEOs to turn culture into a top business priority.

100% of senior leaders agree that workplace culture impacts financial performance. But less than half nurture their culture or fail to make their teams accountable for growing the culture.

Becoming a culture-first organization won’t happen overnight. Here’s how to get you started.

1. Stop managing your culture on autopilot

Culture is often in autopilot and not strategically designed.

According to a Gartner survey, only 31% of HR leaders believe their organizations have the culture necessary to drive success.

Many executives still struggle to manage the soul of the organization purposefully. They see culture as something fluffy, hard to measure, and a nice-to-have. Or believe that they are taking caring of culture because they are offering ‘cool’ perks or have an inspirational purpose.

Company culture is not about things, but everything that people do. Having a ping-pong table is nice, but it’s just a perk. Your company values mean nothing if they are not lived every day.

Unfortunately, in most companies, culture happens by chance, not design. Nurturing company culture requires that leaders focus on three things.

1. Clarity: Leaders should design and clarify what the culture is. They should drive alignment about the expectations and ways of doing things. However, building the culture should become everybody’s responsibility.

2. Passion: A thriving culture is one where people feel proud; it creates belonging cues. When repeated, belonging cues create Psychological Safety and community. People don’t just work at the same…