Adapted from, Be The Best at What Matters Most

Too often, people decide that “it’s time we came up with” a culture, or a vision statement, or a mission statement, or whatever other things they have heard that a company or school is supposed to have. Then they hire a consultant or call for a “special staff development” day, conduct some meeting, fill the walls with sheets of paper covered with ideas, put is all together, print it up, frame it and hang it in the break room or classroom, declare victory, and forget about it until the next meeting, when they all pull their wallet-sized versions out of their pockets and read in unison. Then they forget about it again, until the next meeting.

WHY? Why even bother? If you’re not going to make your culture real, if your staff isn’t going to BE ON a MISSION daily, if your core values aren’t going to be reinforced every day, if fulfilling your vision isn’t going to be at the forefront of your actions, then WHY? Why even have these things!

The idea is clear, it’s not enough to simply have things such as a vision statement, mission statement, and shared core values if these things aren’t reinforced in our daily course of action. So the question becomes, how do we go about reinforcing our culture.

A company called b:ok’s suggest the following:

“Every employee at the Monday morning meeting has a small paper form that, on one side, let’s them give “kudos” to another member of the team. They record “here’s what they did” to deserve the shout-out, and on the flip side of the form, they circle the aspects of the culture, all of which are listed, that the team member’s actions exemplified. This kind of low-tech, simple, very personal reinforcement of a company’s values and culture is what makes the company or school culture come alive.”

QUESTIONS to consider:

1. Does your company, school, or leadership program have a culture defined by shared core values, vision, and mission?
2. What do you do as a company, school, or leadership program to reinforce your culture (shared values, vision, and mission)?
3. How can you and your company, school, or leadership program bring their culture to life? How can you reinforce your culture and make it part of your daily culture?

Take care,

Stephen

(If you are in need of help reinforcing your culture and are interested in a weekend Student Leadership Training, please reach out to us at: stephen@fourseasonsofschoolculture.com)