No Culture Change! What if you like your team and it works for you??
“It’s sort of a trick question because change is going to happen…”
Usually, when we have a team culture that’s working, we know this because certain indicators are strong: high performance, high trust, healthy financials, happy customers, and creative market strategies.
You’ll also notice some organizational drag elements missing or minimized: turnover, interpersonal strife, grievances/disputes, and increased missed goals. If you can check off those boxes, you can count yourself amongst the top organizations operating today!
So, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” right?
You might be surprised to know that not every client who works with me wants to change their team culture. In fact, some people want things to stay just as they are. Are there good reasons to push back against change?
It’s sort of a trick question because change is going to happen—like aging, we might imagine we can prolong it, or thrive in it, or ignore it, but it’s happening. Your team will not stay the same, and you cannot freeze a moment in time. Once, a CEO client of mine was finally so happy that his executive team was “perfect” after trying for so many years to get it right. He was devastated when one member moved on to pursue some personal family goals. Even though he supported her and wished her well, his Dream Team had been demolished.
You cannot control all the variables: market volatility, a happy team member who leaves for personal reasons, and unpredictable financial indicators. What you can influence and build is a team that is resilient, strong, flexible, and adaptable so that the core elements of your culture remain. This allows you to make the most of, and even thrive, in any conditions.
Cultures work and reinvest in themselves when the core values are articulated and rearticulated. If we say we are “Team First,” then we need to answer the questions, “What do we mean by that?” and “What does that look like here?” When team members have courageous conversations to find the best win-win scenario or get creative in their problem-solving, we can see, in their daily interactions and tasks, adherence to and deepening of that core value of “Team First.” Values that are defined behaviorally and answer the above questions are obvious to a newcomer and set that path for the way things go. This intrinsic, tacit exchange of values is equally, if not more, powerful than the carefully designed infographic or poster on a wall. I once heard the grandfather of the strengths movement, Donald Clifton, ask a room filled with educators, “What if our college campus signage demonstrated that we actually cared about students?” As someone with a horrible sense of direction, I thought, Wow! What if we did? Certainly, it would be easier to find the financial aid office or the place to sign up for classes!
Be congruent by not only practicing what you preach or walking the talk but also by recognizing and celebrating what’s important. A culture is not defined by its Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) alone. Ask any random group or team what makes a great team, and they will tell you that great teams “win,” but they will also say that great teams support each other, know their roles, make amends, push each other to stretch, or fill in when someone else falls back. It’s why we are so enamored by sports teams (Think: Ted Lasso): all the drama of the human condition unfolds, including the winning and the losing, but especially all the ways we work together to do something great. Leaders who align what’s important with their team’s core values and take an expansive, comprehensive approach can help everyone know what’s at stake. Is it important to collaborate? Recognize and celebrate collaboration and interdependence. Is it important to educate customers or clients? Recognize and celebrate team members who take time to carefully explain and answer questions and who stave off impatience or disparaging a customer request.
If your team already meets its goals, you might need some bigger goals. Setting reasonable, achievable goals doesn’t mean that we cannot stretch or strive for innovation and creativity. Identify next-level goals to create eustress, the sweet spot for engaging others in rolling up their sleeves to tackle a creative problem or project. If the goals are unreasonable or unachievable, you risk disengaging your team and damaging team culture, too. Setting next-level goals is part art and part science, part leader know-how, and part team input. A team that’s disengaged or discouraged isn’t going to set ambitious goals because they lack the hope of fulfillment. But an engaged, empowered team might set a goal you hadn’t even considered.
If you’ve created a team culture that’s worth celebrating, then it’s also worth sustaining!
Reach out if you want to hear about my #1 requested service: the Team Tune-Up! libbywagner@libbywagner.com
