Organizational Culture: Magical or a Steaming Pile of...

Culture is today's red-hot steaming pile of...buzzword. A close second is all versions of the word hack: hackathon, growth hacking, hack your life, hack your business, you're a hack, I'm a hack, everywhere a hack hack. Here are some other fun words.

Back to culture: What the heck is it? Why does it trump everything else in an organization? How can we create the good kind and keep it? 

David Gray explains culture beautifully and simply as a way of working. He says, "People in small organizations naturally find this kind of rhythm. If you’re doing this well, it feels like magic."

I guess if you're doing it not so well it feels like, well, a steaming pile of...

I feel this kind of magic every time my improv team performs a good show. When we move from one idea to the next as fluidly as if we shared one brain, and as if we have a carefully planned script that is true magic.

My team is able to work like that because long ago we all committed to follow the rules of improv - the "how" we work (or in this case play) together. Of course, we have un-magical bad shows too, which reminds me that following a set of rules doesn't always guarantee a magical culture. 

Ok. Then what the heck is needed to keep the magic alive more often?

My answer: Rules and constant practice. 

Right now I play with two different teams, one I've been with for over a year and one for only a month. You can guess which one performs more magical shows. This is because even though everyone on my new team understands the rules of improv, we need practice.

We need to build trust, get comfortable with supporting each other. We need to learn each other's strengths and weaknesses, and recognize our own. In time we will push through the steaming piles of...bad shows and we will find our magic. 

When I work with teams and organizations I talk about how the rules of improv apply can be used to create a magical workplace culture.  

If your organization supports openness, curiosity, risk taking, listening, and building on the ideas of others, you will feel that magic more often. You will have happy, engaged employees who regularly bring creative solutions to the table, which makes happy clients, which leads to revenue growth. 

How to get there? Create and agree on your organization's "rules" or your way of working. Then put them into practice. Start with yourself. Be a model and live the culture every day, because magic is contagious. 

What's the culture at your organization? Is it painful or magical?