I heard a story this week about a graphic design studio where one person had reached the fourth anniversary of her time with the team.
She hadn’t remembered the milestone, but the Director (and Founder) was armed with gifts and, of course, cake.
With a friendly shout-out across the office, the team gathered around, ate some cake and celebrated the milestone.
In fact, at this studio, every time someone achieves a personal win – including client approval or finishing a large project – the team member will enthusiastically ring a bell so that the whole team can share in their success.
By having unannounced mini-parties, the founder breathes life into the core value of celebrating wins. She has invested in her company’s culture and quite probably boosted performance that afternoon – even if it was just until the sugar hit and smiles wore off!
Happy, thriving & productive
These are really effective ways to bring core values to life across an organisation and inspire a happy, thriving and productive workplace. By showing love and embodying company culture, the Director makes a difference to everybody’s day.
Opportunities to live core values and bring culture to life become even more important as a business grows, especially when the owner/s can no longer always be present.
Happy team members who are recognised for their contribution typically:
- invest more energy in their work
- stay at a company longer
- tell the world how good their workplace is
The rituals, celebrations and systems that form part of the weekly office routine come to life over time, to ensure that company culture grows to be bigger than any one person.
They also offer light relief from a competitive, hyper-connected professional world which can often be exhausting and stressful.
High performance
Encouraging a team to blend the most important and enjoyable parts of life can lead to high performance and happiness. And it is absolutely essential to have systems in place to grow a business around its positive culture.
By empowering team members to have plenty of individual freedom within a set of clear boundaries, a company will be at its most energetic, innovative and productive. And team members become ambassadors – both online and offline. In turn this can attract more team members and clients that fit the culture.
At The Physio Co (TPC), we obsess over hiring the right team members to grow our business by attracting people that want to work with a transparent team that:
- exists to make a difference in the world
- trusts each other
- inspires and challenges
- treats people fairly and with respect
- doesn’t take itself too seriously
- has FUN along the way
- celebrates milestones and successes
- supports each other through tough times.
By transparently presenting our company culture to prospective teammates and clients, any synergy – or lack thereof – soon becomes obvious.
In my humble opinion, the world needs more great places to work – like the graphic design studio that celebrates with cake and bells. A commitment to creating strong systems that keep culture alive enables a workplace to thrive.