Creating a cohesive company culture is difficult, especially with the variation of where and how people work these days. You might feel you cannot control the organization across regions, business units, and work environments. The organization’s culture is fragmented. Additionally, employees demand authentic diversity and inclusion, so companies can no longer prioritize conformity over individuality. In 2023, your approach to culture-building must change as well. Forget about building a uniform culture. It is time to cultivate a unified one.

Encourage an Environment of Trust and Ownership

For good communication, there must exist an environment of trust. All team members can share common principles and contribute to the rest of the team. Help them feel ownership of projects by sharing the “why” of the project. Reduce dependencies, and it will help with engagement.

Create Shared Experiences

Building a team culture requires plenty of positive reinforcement. Consider taking your team for an off-site lunch or participating in a charity event and only discussing non-work topics during these times. The idea is to bring your team together socially and enable them to connect and relate to each other through shared experiences.

Teamwide Check

Always strive to put individuals and interaction over processes and tools. Ambiguity breeds isolation, so overcommunicate everything. Provide regular check-ins, and prioritize fun and wellness. Your team’s productivity is only as good as its overall well-being.

Encourage Work-Life Balance

Develop a people-focused workplace culture. Encourage workers to practice a lifestyle balanced between work and personal time. Work-immersed employees tend to disengage from the rest of the staff and can experience a lack of motivation. Consider a weekly social gathering to enhance communication between team members and boost unity.

Promote Free Time

Forced team-building exercises do not make teams happy. Create a culture that encourages workers to take free time to pursue hobbies with co-workers, such as ping pong or video games. Allow your team members to build camaraderie around communal interests instead of forced associations.

Eat a Meal Together

Have a meal together! Sit down with your team and have a meal together at a location where you can chat. It helps to get your team together in the same room and discuss shared affinities and less formal topics. Of course, you can discuss business toward the end of the meal, but sharing the meal will open up discussion.

Asynchronous Communication

If a discussion is not urgent, use asynchronous communication. Organize these conversations by project or topic to make it easy for team members to refer to them at a later time. It gives employees focus time and allows for better communication across different time zones.

Get Together for a Drink

Hold a regular happy hour once every couple of weeks. Having a few beers in the lobby or kitchen without the distractions of computers and phones can help your team connect and relax.

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