Take the first steps to creating a great company culture

How can you and your team create a workplace culture you can be proud of, that makes you all want to come into work every day and that brings out the best in your team? 

The other day I was chatting with a director of a small charity. He was reminiscing about how his whole team used to cook and eat lunch together at his previous place of work. It was the best place he had ever worked, he said.

"I’m not sure whether it was a great place to work because we did stuff like eating together, or because we did stuff like that, it became a great place to work," he wondered.

It is a good question. A bit like the chicken and the egg, when creating a great workplace culture, what comes first?

There are two things we hear time and again from clients that are affecting the culture they want to see in their organisations:

1. Hybrid and remote working
When people don’t spend enough time together, especially across teams, it affects collaboration and creativity, and limits conversations.

2. Fast growth
When lots of new people have joined or will be joining, as well as the effect on the great culture you already have, each change to the team changes the dynamic and brings new challenges (and opportunities). It can be like a whole new team forming each time.

However, if you can find ways to be more human together, such as eating together, then real connection follows and you'll have better conversations and more creative ideas. 

For example, simple practices that we use in our outdoor team building and leadership development sessions that are surprisingly powerful in helping to build group cohesion, include:

• pausing at the start to help people 'arrive' and transition from whatever they were doing beforehand ie having a few moments of silence the start of meetings
• doing a check-in and inviting people to share how they are feeling
• taking it in turns to speak - this give everyone the opportunity to have a say including the quiet voices
• using rituals to increase belonging and togetherness*

* rituals have:
• meaning/intention
• a regular cadence
• something that goes beyond its practical purpose - it could be a weekly team social on a Friday where you also share personal highlights or appreciate a colleague.
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We see these working with groups in the woods all the time, they are the kinds of things that are the first step to maintaining and enhancing the culture in your organisation, and persistent application and practice can lead to a permanent shift.

​Our mission at School of the Wild is to help businesses and organisations transform their teams and inspire a positive and regenerative workplace culture. We believe that Nature brings out the best in people so we bring leaders and teams outside to help you reconnect and think differently, so that you’re inspired to transform the way you work.

Have a look at our outdoor team building programmes, or get in touch for more information.