Culture shock for your office space

Most children don’t expect to live the eventual adulthood lives they lead, me included. Our hopes and dreams of working either for ourselves or for the coolest company ever, like in the movie BIG, are usually crushed the minute we take off our cap and gown and are sat down at our first workstations.

Over the last 8 years, I’ve had the chance to visit a large number of offices. Few are fun, some are tolerable, and some are unbearably dry. “It’s as though they are missing a certain element in their air,” Tony notes. “Or they have too much ‘Bore-inium’ pumped in.”

On a local level, zu has garnered some attention for its culture. If you have done some digging around, you might be able to catch a glimpse of it on the web. Or, even better, you may have heard about it from someone else. But preserving this culture as the company grows has been a challenge that has cost zu a fair bit. However, I like to think the benefits far outweigh the costs and I’ll tell you why.

When I say culture, I’m really talking about the energy that exists day to day in the office. It’s a culmination of the people, physical space, social initiatives and projects that help make getting out of bed every morning a little bit easier.

After observing our efforts and comparing them to other places over the years, I’ve compiled some evidence behind what drives the creation of culture.

1) Try
This may sound obvious, but you’d be surprised at how little companies try or how feeble some attempts are at achieving any sort of culture. Rule #1, if your attempt to form any corporate culture comes from an HR textbook, you’ve already failed. We try really hard to look like we’re not trying at all (almost shamefully so).

2) It comes from the top
Now the co-founders, Ryan and Tony, are my close friends as well as my bosses, so I don’t want to sound like a Dwight Shrute, but it really starts with them. Some places really suck the fun out of great people with the wrong management. Their attitudes and personalities really set the tone for the entire company. The fact that Ryan wanted to hire George Wendt from the show ‘Cheers’ to sit at our conference booth and drink with the delegates, proved to me that no idea I could come up with would be off limits. (Norm never happened, but you get the idea.) Though R&T aren’t as involved in the planning of parties as they once were, you can still see their influence at all our functions. If you are the head honcho, it’s as much your job to help create a fun environment as it is those in it, so don’t leave it up to someone else.

3) Hire the right personalities
You don’t need a room full of extroverts to have culture. You just need people to believe in and contribute to the culture. We have many quiet introverted people around here, but when it’s time to bob for apples, everyone’s hair gets wet.

4) Fire the wrong personalities (or don’t fight to keep them)
Get rid of culture killers.  If you are trying to establish or foster culture and someone is actively bringing it down, then find ways to get them to buy in, or get rid of them. It doesn’t matter if they are talented. (Agree, disagree?).

5) Small things add up
On my first day here, I can remember filling out my first timesheet. A stark, one colour grid with one small twist – above the box where you filled in your name, read ‘Groovy Person’. This set the tone from day one and communicated to me what kind of place I was working for. It also made me wonder, “why don’t we ever see more of this?” So at your office, think of ways to spice up everyday things. For starters, change the name of your social committee to something that doesn’t use the terms ‘social’ or ‘committee’. You’ll be surprised at how even a little detail like that can have a trickle effect on your organization’s culture.

6) Aim for comfort
Most people have divisions between their work persona and who they really are. Try to foster an environment in which people can be natural. From the dress code, to flex hours, to the office space, to the language used around the office. It’s different for every company, but taking a good look at how to make your place more human is a step towards building culture. This is the service experience you give your employees.

7) Learn from other great environments
When you hear of other tales of success, don’t be afraid to copy them. We’ve been influenced by ideas employed at some local companies like Point2, VendAsta, EngComp and many of our clients. It’s exhausting thinking of new ideas for staff functions, so it’s good to listen to other fun ideas other companies are trying. Which reminds me, I just missed Point2′s Reggae Party.

So there you have it, piece of cake. I should state that this works better for companies our size, and I’m aware that some things are harder to pull off in bigger and more unionized environments. But to the people in charge, you should be asking yourself, “what’s stopping us from doing this?”

My intention here isn’t to showcase the zu environment, but to share some ideas on what we have found seems to work for us. ‘Real’ things still happen here after all. People get fired, people quit, and there is the odd Debby-downer once in a while. It’s the one side effect of not employing robots. But one thing is that we never stop trying to build up the culture, and I hope we can inspire your company to do the same.

I also hope this was the best thing you’ve read in the last 4 minutes.