By Elaine Seale-McKend
Organisational culture, one of those black box mysteries where you believe you can control and manage it and then it pops up somewhere else in a different form. Why is it so difficult to pin down, how can it be shaped when it can’t always be seen?
Now add into the mix the complexity of hybrid working, the fact that many of us don’t have as many ‘cultural touchpoints’ as we had in the past and a growing number of new employees have no cultural touchpoints at all. We have diluted the way ’things are done around here’ because many of us are simply not having that experience.
Work is not just about producing results but an opportunity to have meaningful connections with others, that human experience and sense of belonging. How can you continue to nurture this whilst being at home where many aspects of social happenings are either neglected or take place over zoom? How can you create the ‘social glue’ and connectedness we once took for granted? Perhaps the answer to that lies in rethinking the legacy aspect of culture and changing habits to replace old practices.
At Teamery many of our clients are concerned about the impact of hybrid on culture and rightly so. How do you foster a feeling of belonging and community when you have many of your workforce absent from the office? Culture does not go away when the office is emptier, nor does it cease to evolve. Perhaps it's time we got rid of the thinking that culture sits within the walls of organisations and focus more on the human needs and wants of employees to stay productive, creative, healthy, inspired and connected. Transferring office space into collaborative and creative space where time is given to encourage and support connections and the human element of individuals and teams.
If you would like to know more about how Teamery is partnering with clients to support their thinking and design practical solutions to improving the hybrid working experience please contact us at hello@teamery.io to set up a preliminary discussion.