The Culture Code!

Procrastination - the greatest killer of culture!

Approximately eighteen years ago, in a hotel in Melbourne, Proteus launched the ‘Creating A Positive Culture’ workshop and seminar. At the time, no one else was really focusing on this important area of business and so we literally packed every event we scheduled.

Eighteen years later, with updates and modifications to the program, the ‘Creating a Positive Culture’ workshop is still as topical as ever and our programs are still full.

Why is this the case?

I believe that it remains such an important and challenging area because we make this issue far more difficult than it should be.

Culture is defined as - The Way We Do Things Around Here, so unless we are prepared to change the way we do things around here, then our culture will never change.

Great leaders know what the culture is in their workplace and go about finding ways to make it better. We don’t need a 6-month questionnaire, followed by frameworks, to tell us what we should already know – our culture is not working and it needs to be fixed.

Positive workplace culture is not determined by process, it is about helping people to establish better relationships and creating the space where robust conversations can take place without prejudice, and negativity and poor behaviour is dealt with quickly, because it is procrastination that is the greatest killer of culture.

So, if you want to start to build a better culture, deal with your problem people quickly, open the lines of communication where people feel safe to interact and then help people to build stronger personal and workplace relationships.

Remember: culture will never improve by introducing more bureaucracy  – it will only ever get better when we start to act and do something about it.

As the great Australian author Peter Sheahan said, "action precedes clarity”.

Every one of us deserves to work within a great culture, but every one of us also has a responsibility to make it that way.

So, when determining whether or not you should be in a place or maybe asking the question whether someone else should be there, simply ask – do I/they add to the culture or do I/they take away from the culture?
 
I think both answers have very clear paths of action. Either we get out or we take responsibility for our part in the equation.

Creating a positive culture in our workplaces is not difficult if we are prepared to do the things that are required to make it happen.