As Brian Chesky of AirBnB said, “Culture is simply a shared way of doing something with passion.” Companies with good team cultures offer security, freedom, motivation and meaningful work and offer the push for people to reach their full potential. Sometimes people misconstrue good team culture with cool perks: a ping pong table, kegerator and a video game budget are often seen as demarcations of good team culture. These things are all great in their own right, but they are bonus toppings on the sundae that is good team culture, not the other way around.
“You don’t create a culture. Culture happens. It’s the by-product of consistent behavior.” (Jason Fried, 37signals) Organizations and teams that execute on constant appreciation, sincerity, trust and honesty in everyday interactions report high levels of employee job and life satisfaction. The cultures within these teams have ownership and alignment to a defined set of shared core values - sometimes company official, sometimes not - and these values vary within industries and companies, taking different frameworks and forms. Companies that stand for a set of shared values that cut across a workforce have the ability to elevate their team culture from good to great.
If you can align to a company’s values and believe in their vision for the future, you can be an active creator and have ownership within any good team culture.
Recommended books to read: “Delivering Happiness” Tony Hsieh of Zappos.com, “Tribal Leadership” by Dave Logan, John King & Halee Fischer-Wright