Focus on the positive of a company culture

When most companies try to improve their culture, they focus on the negative aspects and try to improve them. Although this may sound reasonable, the opposite approach is more successful.

• Identify a few positive attributes within your culture that are connected directly to the identity and specific capabilities that are driving success in your business.
• Find ways to increase and extend them throughout the organization to counterbalance some of the negative aspects of your culture.
• Articulate the critical attributes of your business that people care about, and that can help move your strategy forward.
• In time, great behaviors and attributes will replace the negative aspects of your culture.

This approach has far more power than a “culture initiative” because it lets people bring their own emotional energy to a business where they feel they have a stake.