Company culture is a hot topic these days, with every office starting to understand that workplace happiness boosts engagement. But many work environments often separate their ideas of culture with their strategy missives. What would happen if the two were combined?
After careful research, VibeCatch has discovered that a directive that combines workplace engagement with a winning strategy is a clear recipe for success.
Read on to find out how this can be done.
Companies spend immense amounts of time and resources reorganizing the structural capacity of their enterprise. But if your processes don’t align with your staff, then the strategy is bound to fail. However, if you can identify the positive aspects of your company’s identity and culture, then you can promote them throughout the organization, creating an accelerated prime objective.
One company that has created immense success by combining strategy and culture is Starbucks. A recent article describes how the coffee company’s relationship driven, employees-first approach has garnered them longevity and financial security.
At Starbucks, employees are treated as partners in the company. They are given exemplary benefits such as stock options and health insurance, thereby creating a culture of inclusion.
Taking from this we can identify two simple steps to initiate the fusion of culture and strategy within your organization.
1. Focus on engaging your employees so that they feel confident in executing the strategy. Ultimately they must come to think of it as ‘their’ strategy for this theory to work.
2. Empower managers and employees who are exhibiting leadership qualities. These chosen few can help bring strategy missives to the forefront and corral other staff to do the same.
Remember that once people feel they have a stake in your enterprise, they will bring their all to it. Creating a positive emotional energy within the office environment is a way of leveraging the company’s culture, to access and institute the main directive.
Organizational culture is a not a new theory, but it is an oft-overlooked and distinct characteristic that builds competitive advantage. After all, a poorly executed strategy, no matter how clever, is ultimately worthless.