Maximize Company Culture with These 2 Lessons from the Classroom

Company culture, which can be defined as the “personality” of a company, is becoming more and more important as businesses evolve and become more data-driven. Forbes stated that company culture…

• Contributes to the identity and values of a company.
• Attracts amazing talent (and helps leaders retain those employees).
• Strengthens brand identity.

There are many more benefits of strong company culture than these. If this wasn’t the case, there wouldn’t be thousands of Web-based videos, blog posts, articles, eBooks, and programs aimed at helping companies strengthen corporate culture.

If you’ve tried maximizing company culture only to receive poor results, it may be time to pull some ideas from an unexpected place: the classroom.

“Studies have indicated measurable increases in turnover for companies with poor or nonexistent culture.” — Forbes  

These 2 Lessons from the Classroom Will Help You Build Amazing Company Culture

The classroom is a great place to draw inspiration from when it comes to brainstorming ways to strengthen company culture. Here are two lessons from the classroom that will help you maximize company culture this week: 

1. Rituals are important in the workplace — Do you remember how structured school was? If you are like most people, you knew what to expect when you were at school. You heard the bell at a certain time, had certain subjects at certain times, and ate at a certain time. If only work were half as scheduled. Certainly people want flexibility in their work schedules, but they also need structure. A contributor to Recruiter.com who used to be a tenured professor wrote about how he established structure in his company using meetings:

“Meetings had a very specific cadence that helped set the pace for everyone. Every month, the entire company met up. The team leader for each team shared what they’d accomplished in the past month and what was on deck to be completed in the coming month. This helped each person see the bigger picture and understand how their own projects aligned with the overall direction of the company.”

Simply structuring meetings in ways that were predictable to employees helped this individual establish solid company culture.  

2. Provide constant training/learning — Companies with learning cultures tend to be successful. This is because their employees are highly skilled and credentialed as a result of consistent training. Just as you learned each day at school, your employees should learn something each day at work, and it should happen intentionally. The learning can be as unfussy as watching a 3-minute training video or TED talk, reading a blog post related to a soft skill you want to develop in the employee, or connecting with a mentor for a few minutes. The key is to teach your employees as consistently as you were taught in school. You’ll love the learning culture this simple practice will breed in your organization.

What are some ways your company makes improving corporate culture a priority?