In February of 1984, Culture Club reached #1 in the Billboard charts with their smash hit "Karma Chameleon". I loved the Culture Club...I am a girl of the ‘80’s, go figure! I danced many a time to that song and never imagined that I would have such a connection to the group in my professional years. Ok, the connection may be only slight…So, through our work, we help companies shape their own positive service culture-not exactly what Boy George and the gang were doing in the “80’s…but hey, they helped define the “culture” of the 1980’s with their music.
Perhaps you’ve heard talk about cultures and how behavior, language, music, beliefs, etc. help define culture--whether it be the “Culture of the 1980’s”, “Latino culture”, or the “culture of the Catholic Church”. Every organization/company, etc. also has their own culture. It could be one that is productive (serving, trusting, innovative, transparent), one that is destructive (selfish, fearful, stale, silo-ed) or one that is somewhere in between. There has been a lot of buzz lately about organizational culture and its effect on success. Striving to shape a thriving, productive culture should be Job One for CEOs.
While it all can seem a bit complicated, it really has a simple formula: Culture drives behavior, behavior drives action and action drives results. Out of this productive culture naturally comes people and products that result in better relationships, higher trust, increased safety, less mistakes, greater efficiency, better innovation, higher employee and customer engagement…all the good stuff. Don’t you want your organization’s actions to be productive and results to be positive? If so, then start with shaping your organization’s culture.
Check out these two great articles addressing the subject:
- In the first, "Culture Change Starts with CEO", LivePerson CEO, Robert LoCascio talks about how organizational culture became increasingly important as his company grew. It has ultimately allowed them to upgrade their workforce, become more innovative, expand their product lines and grow their business.
- The second article, "To Tear Down Walls, You Have to Move Out of Your Office", shares some insights from fellow culture consultants explaining why a company’s culture is so important to its survival and how to go about shaping it.
At CSE, we took a taste of our own medicine early on. As we grew, we established our own Service Principles (referred to in the above articles as purpose, values, guiding behaviors) that have been the foundation of shaping our culture. An integral part of our Principles are our Service Standards, and we live by these every day:
- Courteous
- Developmental
- Responsive
- Efficient
We have a laser focus on these standards and they are exclusive to CSE--created by CSE and relevant to only CSE. We have helped several organizations craft their own Service Principles and Standards--which were created by the organization, for the organization, and relevant only to that organization. They, too have helped to shape their cultures to ones that are productive, positive and flourishing.
Does your company have guiding principles, values, or a purpose? Does everyone live by them every day? Are they helping to create a culture within your organization that supports and promotes serving others, trust, innovation and transparency? Join the Culture Club--start now to shape the culture that will bring your organization and its stakeholders the greatest success!
- Click HERE to learn about how CSE helped one organization shape their service culture, and resulted in a 62% decrease in employee turnover!
