The minimum
Every organisation needs a supportive culture and environment to function. That’s a minimum standard for success. Developing a winning culture takes this base level much higher.
Where a culture is one of uncertainty or fear, there won’t be much sense of team. As Abraham Maslow set out in his hierarchy of needs, there’s no sense of social belonging until there’s a first a strong sense of psychological safety.
The aim of all working environments should be a collaborative culture which fosters bonds of social belonging and allows every team member to reach their potential. That’s the same whether your organisation is in business, sport or the third sector. It doesn’t matter if you’re a professional rugby team, law firm or school, the key elements are the same. They’re just applied differently.
What’s needed for a Winning Culture?
To create a successful culture, an organisation needs several base elements. It doesn’t matter what kind of organisation or sector you’re in. These elements are a shared purpose, clear goals, realistic expectations, fair rewards for team members; and an agreed set of values. These all sound pretty obvious and straightforward. They may be already there to some extent, but they are often underpowered or misaligned.
One is the need for realistic expectations. Whatever your ultimate goals are, today’s expectations need to be realistic for the circumstances you’re in. It’s also important to remember that not every mission ends in absolute failure or absolute success. A qualified success is still a success.
If you want a higher level of performance than this, all of these elements can be improved and developed. On top of these, you can add a series of strategic missions to drive collaboration, winning standards, team based rewards, winning behaviours, enhanced collaboration and proactive alignment.
A winning culture drives growth
When a culture is a winning one, it creates a strong people magnet, helping to retain team members and attract potential new ones. A winning culture also drives increased performance and efficiency, which creates growth.
How we can help
We can offer you help creating or improving a winning culture. We can help from the outside with practical ideas to develop your culture and environment. As mentioned above, this could include helping you set and deliver winning standards and behaviours. Or, we can get directly involved through sessions that build a collective purpose and identity.
If things have become dysfunctional and toxic, we can help move things forward through Team Mediation. We’ll always adapt what we do to provide a supportive process that suits your team. Please get in touch if you want to find out more.