“Culture eats strategy for breakfast”. This quote has been used and misquoted by management consultants and business “thinkers” so often that it has become a somewhat stale way of saying that your strategy won’t fix your people problems; unless one simultaneously addresses the root of the issue – your organisational culture and connected behaviours.

Let’s look at how you can practically build a future-fit culture to ensure that you attract the right people to your team and keep them long enough to upskill them and send them out into the world of work with a more robust set of capabilities.

How does organisational culture fit into the future of work?

A lot has been said about the future of work as if it’s something to fear. It’s not. Especially if your culture is built to address the challenges that come with the inevitable workforce transformation. And unlocking the bests parts of your culture is the key to transforming at a pace that your peers cannot compete with.

But having a future-fit culture does not happen by accident, and it certainly does not appear overnight. One of the critical aspects of a thriving culture is opening the conversation to everyone. When we co-create culture, we strengthen it through every interaction and drive adoption at every level.  People tend to own what they create.

What do successful organisations use to build culture?

From our wide industry insights, we have isolated two foundational pillars that reinforce our strategic approach to culture: give more in value than you take in return, and keep humans exactly where they belong – at the centre of it all. We fundamentally believe that what you do is what you are. To keep all of this from disintegrating into a buzz-word fest, here’s what you can practically do to establish and enhance your organisational culture:

Invest in your people:

Establish initiatives that sustain your investment in people. This could range from practically pairing team members across disciplines to get hands-on, real-time interactions that build trust, to hosting training workshops to share skills and master the art of presentation. Prioritise time and space for your team members to experiment, learn and explore the entire workplace. Building multi-role proficiency in team members is critical, so encourage your people to absorb as much as possible from every other person in the team.

By prioritising learning and development, you’ll keep the team engaged long after the novelty of remote work wears off. Curate interesting, actual learning resources and host group discussions about a specific relevant topic once a week.

Don’t think of team members as resources

Late into our annual strategic discussion, one of our senior partners raised his aversion to the habit of calling people resources. And while this idea is entrenched in the labour culture as we know it, we’ve been challenging ourselves to step away from the term ‘resource’.

Take up this challenge and watch how it opens up a new approach to how you think about your people and relate to each other. We all need to train a reflex that considers people, their challenges and their lives outside of work. This simple mind shift will bring on a ripple effect of positive changes to your culture as you keep building it.

Why are we making such a fuss about culture and the future of work?

Apart from the effects that culture may have on the wellbeing of your people, and ultimately the bottom line, we believe that unlocking your unique organisational culture can bring you closer to a future of work reality, which you need to remain sustainable and successful.

There’s no denying that 2020 was the onset of incredible change for most organisations all across the globe, but the change isn’t stopping here. A global pandemic was the catalyst, and we’re all feeling the shock waves of workforce transformation as we try to reach our “new normal”.

We’re making such a fuss about culture and the future of work because culture is the difference between riding the wave or being swept away by it. Culture, in our world, isn’t simply what you believe; it’s what you do. And if you’re not actively building your culture to be agile, experimental and more risk-tolerant, you’re not going to end up without culture- you’re going to end up with something much worse- a weak, toxic culture.

About the Author

Chantelle is a communications specialist with extensive experience in relationship management, content development and project management for corporate clients. She manages employee engagement across all VSLS value propositions and provides direction as the Chief of Staff for Team VSLS.