In 2023, many companies and organizations will focus on improving their internal structure. The beginning of a new year often inspires change; however, if company leaders are not constantly evaluating their work environments, their organizations will be hindered by current problems.
Ask a dozen employees at the same company to describe its culture, and you’ll likely get a dozen different answers. But at a company with a world-class culture, not only will all employees have a similar description of their company’s culture, but they will all know what is expected of their role, what goals they have, and how to use the trends and information their company’s data presents.
Here are five ways IT leaders can create and foster a strong workplace culture:
Step 1: Create a cultural purpose statement
The first and perhaps most crucial step is to create a purpose statement that communicates what the organization’s culture stands for. The statement should provide a concrete, easy-to-remember foundation that aligns all team members.
[ Also read Employee engagement: 3 considerations for 2023. ]
Words alone do not change or transform culture, but they can define it. All great cultural purpose statements are actionable and provide clarity, direction, inspiration, and meaning.
Step 2: Learn through active collaboration and innovation
This next step is a collaborative one in which everybody in the IT department offers insights on how the company can improve its culture, internal tools, and data strategies.
Welcome feedback from all employee levels of the organization so that everybody is aligned and committed to building a robust and world-class culture. This is an essential step in encouraging collaboration where all team members feel that their opinions and thoughts matter.
The best way to think about this step is that culture is defined top-down but then shifts to bottom-up. The goal is to engage team members’ hearts and minds and implement a multifaceted approach to driving engagement while identifying key daily behaviors that will help bring the values to life.
Here’s how to do this:
- Identify and locate problems in the existing culture (e.g., toxic behavior, glorifying hard work, lack of work-life balance, low morale/productivity, etc.).
- Engage each manager in the organization for specific input and feedback.
- Create specific, detailed daily behaviors that reinforce bringing values to life.
- Begin company-wide manager meetings centered around this strategy.
Step 3: Launch, cascade, and embed
Implementing a new strategy is not as simple as posting flyers and emailing a cultural purpose statement to the IT department. You must make it a priority to implement and promote the culture throughout all data strategy functions and department meetings and communications.
This launch phase is about making sure that every single employee embeds the culture within their daily work and daily communications and interactions. Leaders who want to alter, improve, or overhaul their current culture often run into trouble because they approach the task as a one-off rather than developing a strategy for cultural implementation.
At this stage, it is critical to create a cultural implementation playbook, which should include four actions:
Drive alignment forward
There will never be complete buy-in in the beginning – and that’s okay. However, all IT leaders and the senior leadership team must be aligned. This may necessitate separate meetings to ensure alignment and to explain why so much energy and time is being directed toward impacting and improving the current culture.
Create a behavioral manifesto
In step two above, I mentioned the importance of developing specific daily behaviors that will help bring your values to life. The behavioral manifesto is a single document that outlines clear and detailed behavioral statements. This document should be distributed to all members of the team.
Create a comprehensive communication strategy
A single meeting to inform team members about the culture and what will change is not enough. Successfully launching, cascading, and embedding a culture change requires a comprehensive communication strategy. This strategy should outline the current reality, explain why change is happening, and establish a clear and compelling future vision.
Create a culture rollout roadmap
The purpose of this roadmap is to outline every phase of the launch journey to reinforce clarity, accountability, and maximum impact.
Step 4: Drive impact for the long term
The goal of creating a world-class IT culture is to create a culture that is long-lasting and sustainable and that embodies the goals and structure of the department. It should also drive long-term impact for the future of IT at the organization. It is important to constantly embed the culture in everything you do to ensure that it is not just a short-term initiative.
Step 5: Blaze the trail
This last step will determine whether your organization’s attempts will succeed or fail, and it falls on IT leaders to pave the way forward. Model the culture by embedding it in every interaction, meeting, and information and data strategy you present.
Even when you believe your employees aren’t watching, constantly model your behavior after the ideals of the cultural purpose statement to ensure that all members of the IT department have a model in their leadership.
The ultimate differentiator in any organization or team is the performance and effectiveness of its leaders. The same is true for cultivating a world-class culture. It all starts with senior leaders modeling and leading the way forward.
To keep things simple, here are three components to consider when it comes to a leader’s role in building culture.
Set the vision
A job of senior leaders that no one else can do is to set the vision of the culture, relentlessly share the specifics of that vision, and illustrate clear examples of how to enact it every day.
Lead the way forward
Once you’ve communicated your vision and the type of culture you want to create, lead the way. You can’t expect others to change their ways of working if you remain stagnant.
Coach for excellence
The most effective team leaders view themselves more as coaches than managers or leaders. Instead of micromanaging or imposing top-down directives, get out in the field and coach!
[ Ready to level up your communication skills? Get advice from IT leaders. Download our Ebook: 10 resources to make you a better communicator. ]
