The culture mystery

This was a good week for me. #Engaging.io got listed as the Third Place to Work in Tech across all small businesses in Australia. As Head of People & Culture, that's the kind of thing that makes to do my happy dance. No, you can't see it.

My whole job is pretty much ensuring we have a great culture, yet surprisingly I'm not actually very good at articulating what it is. I don't mean our values, I know them like the back of my hand. They play a part, but they're not our #culture. We have Culture Codes (thanks to #HubSpot) which help us live our culture through our work and actions, but they're not our actual 'culture'.

I think my inability to articulate such a key part of my job comes down to my favourite definition of what workplace culture is.

Workplace culture is what connects your employees, partners and customers to your company's purpose

It's a great explanation, and within it, I hope is my 'get out of jail free' card. If workplace culture is what connects different people from different backgrounds, genders, ethnicities, sexual preferences, socio economic groups, cultures and religions to a company's purpose, then it can't be just one thing. It has to mean different different things to different people. Doesn't it?

In short, you have build a culture for a business that makes everyone feel connected to it in the ways that are most important to them.

For me, I love the openness and fun of our culture, but my colleague Melissa in the USA (hi Mel) undoubtedly doesn't love the exact the same thing. My colleague Alice in New Zealand, Leo in The Philippines or Sachintha in Sri Lanka also probably have different things that connect them. But they are all connected. We know that for a fact through the Great Place Work results.

The bigger your business, the harder this must become, but that just means it needs more effort to understand and more action to deliver.

We love putting labels on things us humans. If we can't label it, it seems to make us itch at our core. I think it's OK though not to define exactly what makes a great workplace culture. If we do, we're in danger of creating a 'thing', and not everyone likes things. Instead, if you continue to listen to your employees, your partners and your customers, give them what they need and do so in a way that makes them feel good about the process, then you will have a great culture. You can prop it up with clear and aligned values, good communication and 'things', but maybe leaving a little bit of mystery is OK.