How to Build Culture S1:E13

The big idea: shape and frame the culture in your organisation.Mould your organisation values, principles and behaviours to shape the ultimate company culture.

As a leader, you might be unfamiliar with how to build a culture in your organisation. At Waymaker, we often find that leader’s don’t know where to start.

We unpack on how to build or transform the culture within your organisation through:

How culture is built off behavioursImportance of building a cultureBuilding an objective lens around cultureYou don't teach culture, you are the culture

In an organisation, culture is the way we are doing things. It’s built off the behaviours of the leaders and employees.

You can’t mandate culture because that turns it into policy, and no one wants to remember a 52-page book of the company’s policies.

How do we build DNA inside culture?

Being, doing and showing.

Often in culture, we forget the process of cultural alignment. It is the process of discernment and disciple. If you can’t model it as a leader, then your team will never adopt the culture because they will just model you. They’ll never believe what you say, they’ll just do as you say.

As a leader, know that you're building culture. You can do this by building clarity of the behaviours of who you are and what you do.

In the Waymaker Leadership Framework, identity is the very first big chunk of thinking. It’s figuring out who you are in the marketplace and the community. It begins to frame how you will act and who you are encompassing. It includes the elements of who your organisation is.

Many organisations solve the same problem, but in different ways

Often, different organisations are all trying to do the same thing – solve the consumer's problem. But, if we all solved the problem in the same way, we’d never have a sense of character as an organisation which differentiates us from the rest.

Character is the very heart of the organisation. It is separating it from its competitors.

How do we create an objective lens around our organisation's culture?

The Waymaker Framework in our Academy has an excellent module called ‘Culture Shapers’. It explains the lens that brings objectivity to the intangible.

At Waymaker, we dissect culture in four lenses

LanguageSymbolsStoriesCurrencyToday, what does our organisation's culture look like through that lens?

The lens we’re looking through is the lens between language, stories, symbols, and currency.  

But what does the ultimate lens look like?

It all beings with objectifying culture to know where your organisation should begin, what your organisation should continue or stop. Then, developing goals.

Being practical teaches your team how to build that culture.

Start building or transforming your organisation's culture

Check out Waymaker Academy, and start using it with your clients, your organisation. The Waymaker Leadership Framework will help you build your goals and better articulate your goals and build a better culture.

Jump on waymaker.io and sign up for a free 30-day trial.