When entrepreneurs and business leaders start or reorganize companies, workplace culture is one of the most important things they should get right. It’s the basis for all business operations and a powerful driver of corporate success.
Corporate culture is the unique personality of an organization. It sets the tone for how the company treats its employees and how its employees should treat each other, clients, vendors, and stakeholders.
Since culture is so important in the workplace and entrepreneurs often put everything on the line, it’s important to plan and design the culture instead of leaving it to chance and letting it develop on its own.
What is a culture of design?
Design company culture is a way of working that is based on design thinking principles and puts the user experience first. A company with a strong design culture focuses on giving its users experiences that make their lives better.
A digital vice president at McKinsey, a director in Silicon Valley, and a digital partner break down what it means for an organization to be design-driven:
“The thing that makes design-driven companies different is that they try to find out why customers want what they want, not just what they want. They know that data are important for understanding how customers act, but that they don’t have nearly enough empathy.
What makes a company great?
There is no single answer to this question because the culture of each company is very different. A great company culture, on the other hand, is marked by a strong sense of community and teamwork, a commitment to excellence, and a pleasant place to work.
When a company has a great culture, employees feel supported by their coworkers and leaders, and they are proud to work there. The values, mission, and goals of an organization often show what its culture is like. When these things are strong, they can make a good place to work that attracts and keeps the best people.
A company’s culture also makes a big difference when it comes to making sure its employees are happy. Stats show that 64% of workers are likely to leave a company that doesn’t have a strong work culture.
Also, a company’s culture is a reflection of the whole organization and will affect how productive and effective employees are. Let’s talk about how to make a better design company culture in detail.
Why does the culture of a company matter?
Your company’s culture is important because if you set out your values and mission, you’ll be able to find the right people who share your goals. Emma Brudner, the Director of People Operations of the travel management app Lola.com, says in this article that company culture should be treated like a product: “When culture isn’t defined and you rely on a variety of perks to fill the gap, you always have to keep up with what your competitors are offering.
” Brudner goes on to say that a product that relies on “meaningless bells and whistles” to stand out won’t last long on the market, and the same can be said for your company’s culture.
Why is a design culture important in areas other than design?
Creating a Design a Company Culture can help your business grow and change for the better. In 2016, Forrester Research Consulting did a study to find out if companies with design-led cultures had a measurable business advantage. They asked businesses in the US, UK, France, Germany, South Korea, Australia/New Zealand, and Japan questions and looked at the answers.
The study’s results show how much of an impact a strong design culture can have on an organization:
- 70% of them had better digital experiences than their competitors.
- 50% of the users were more loyal.
- 46% had a strong overall advantage over their competitors.
- 41% of the market was bigger than that.
The study says that focusing on design makes an organization stronger from the inside out:
“In design-led companies, the design goes beyond the product teams and permeates the whole organization. It’s part of the culture. And there is a desire to keep getting better… These companies help designers with a wide range of skills, from those who are more experienced or who think more strategically to those who are less experienced or who think more tactically. Teams bring together working groups by using tools and methods for working together.”
How do you set up a culture of design?
A design culture can be built in a few different ways. Some companies, like Dropbox, have a design team that moves from project to project, like an internal design consultancy. And some companies make sure that all product teams have designers on them. Some companies follow AirBnB’s example and make sure that each product team has a project manager whose only job is to look out for the users.
IDEO says that a strong design culture has these five traits:
- Always interested. Everyone at your company is always asking questions, and you have systems set up to use data to help answer those questions and give more information.
- Frequent experimentation. Employees are always looking for as many solutions as they can, which makes launches go better.
- Collaboration between teams. Different teams from different industries are used to working together. In a silo, nothing gets done. Tools that make it easy for people to work together, like Freehand, let your team make wireframes, plans, and design presentations together.
- Storytelling on purpose. Instead of letting an idea die as it bounces back and forth between teams, give it to someone who can really own it, like a project lead, a design lead, or a passionate team member. Their job is to tell stories that make people move forward and get excited.
- More thoughts. Your organization comes up with a lot of ideas every day, which lets you make changes quickly and get feedback. You’re always getting better at shipping new things.
How do design the culture of a company?
It’s not easy to make a company culture that employees love, but it’s worth it. When setting up the culture of their company, directors, board members, and senior executives should think about these things.
Learn what people want and need to make a company culture that they love. This can be done with surveys, one-on-one conversations, or focus groups. When employees are happy, their teams work better and the business does better.
This includes giving reasonable amounts of work, giving people chances to grow and develop, and having a healthy culture at work. By knowing what people want and need from their work environment, you can make a company culture that people love and appreciate.
1. Choose what you want to do.
How will your people be and do their best in the culture they live in? Studies have shown that accountability is important for building ownership, getting people involved, and reaching goals.
But it’s also important for workplace culture to have a sense of purpose and community, especially for millennials and other new hires who want to feel like they’re part of a group that’s making a difference or solving big problems in the world.
2. Be Strategic
Create goals that support the culture you want to build, as well as the main strategies and activities that will help it succeed. For instance, if your goal is to build a culture of accountability, you should come up with strategies that help you reach that goal.
Ask, “What’s the goal?” about every plan. If it could hurt the caring and/or responsible culture you want, it’s not the right strategy. Go back to the drawing board and come up with one that is.
3. Get the Right People
When it comes to creating a workplace culture, you can have a clear vision and all the plans in the world to back it up, but if you don’t have the right people on board, you’ll never get there. That’s because if people aren’t a good fit and don’t share the company’s values and the culture it wants to have, they won’t be engaged or, worse, they might cause trouble among the people who are.
So when you hire and keep people, think about the culture you want. Make sure the people you bring into your organization know its goals and vision, and that they have the values, skills, and abilities to help it reach its goals. Give the people you already have working for you the feedback, tools, and resources they need to keep contributing to the culture you want and to stay engaged in it.
4. Know how things work
Culture is a two-way street. Executives make it, but employees define and shape it through their personalities and how they interact with each other every day. This is based on trust, shared values, actions that show those values, and shared goals.
Culture is not something that a company tells and forces on its employees. Instead, it is a process of building relationships between a company and its workers. A company’s culture is also an extension of its brand. It is a key link between the company’s internal environment and its public image, which can affect its reputation.
5. Show how the culture is
Companies should find ways to show their culture through their actions. This can have a big impact on employees and show that the company is living up to its values. Also, putting in place programs that match up with certain values says a lot about the company and its culture.
Tips for designing a company culture that people love
Let’s take a closer look at the tips for creating a better company culture and making workers more productive.
- Describe what you think company culture means.
- Use your company’s culture as part of your branding.
- Create a company culture manual
- Encourage your employees to live and breathe your company culture.
- Evaluate and adjust your company culture regularly
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