Feature: Create A Culture Committee

It is no secret that culture is defined, driven and reinforced by the senior leaders, but how do you activate that culture throughout the organization-- from the boardroom to the front line?  And who brainstorms events and/or programs to connect and energize employees and embed the values throughout the organization? Who evaluates what is working, what is not working and where the gaps are?  

The answer:  A culture committee

What is a Culture Committee?

At the heart of culture lies the organization’s core values. Senior leadership plays a significant role in communicating and cascading these values. Human resources also plays a pivotal role in promoting them. 

A culture committee is a group of cross-functional culture (and organization) enthusiasts who continuously discuss, identify and plan ways to promote, drive, evolve and maintain culture across an organization - from the top leaders, to the frontline employees.

Case study: Google

o Google is a well-known leader in driving and sustaining corporate culture. Comparably.com, a platform that provides compensation data for public and private companies, awarded Google the “Best Company Culture” award in 2017.

o How did they earn it? By placing a strong emphasis on maintaining culture throughout the organization that stretches from its central office in Mountain View, CA, to all other offices and remote employees around the globe.

o Stacy Sullivan, Google’s current Chief Culture Officer, established “culture clubs” at Google. These clubs are employee driven and consist of those who volunteer their time to come together to discuss cultural issues at their office, country or region. They brainstorm ways to improve on cultural issues and continuously keep employees in their areas connected to the broader organization.

Creating and Curating the Culture Committee

Since driving culture has an organization-wide reach that touches all employees, it is important that the committee represents voices from all functions, roles and levels of seniority across the organization. Incorporating this level of diversity across members helps to deliver robust insight and ensures no single function or level has a stronger voice over the others. 

When selecting the committee, the goal is to accomplish not only geographical, but generational, and functional diversity amongst members. Tenure should also be considered. Ensure members are a mix of longstanding employees, new hires, and those in between.

How many members should there be?

 It is important to consider the organization’s size and priorities when determining the size of the committee. In smaller organizations, this can mean as few as five or six members, so long as all voices are represented. Larger organizations may need a larger committee or multiple committees to ensure representation based on functions and/or geography. 

While collaboration is fruitful, a focus should be placed on not overloading the committee with too many members. Too many participants may make it difficult to accomplish goals and hinder effectiveness.

Who are the ideal candidates?

It is important to seek candidates that have a passion for culture, enjoy connecting with their colleagues, love where they work, and promote and embody the organization’s core values. Candidates should be allowed to self-nominate or can be nominated by leaders or peers.

Stellar communications skills are a must-have trait, along with a team-player attitude. Employees who have emerged as natural leaders in their respective area of responsibility often fill the role well. Though senior leaders may be tempted to select only people in key positions or whom they see as ‘high potentials’, the committee may be more effective if it includes employees who are highly influential and well connected to the organization’s informal network. A tool called Organizational Network Analysis can help to identify less obvious key influencers or linchpins in your organization.

Candidates should express excitement for their participation on the committee, however it is important they have the bandwidth to participate. Employees who are overloaded with other projects and commitments, or have conflicting schedules, may see their involvement as simply another task to tackle or box to check.

What is the recommended process for selecting members?

Like any job interview, set standards that the ideal candidate must embody. Task and encourage committee members to continuously scout new colleagues who express interest in participation.  For those that wish to apply, ask that they formally submit their interest to join and explain why they feel they would be a good fit. In smaller committees, have all members review and vote on the final decision. For larger committees, select a panel of members to review.

Communicate the time and effort required of each committee member during the interview. This ensures candidates are fully aware of the participation level required.

Keep it fresh!

Since culture is ever-evolving within an organization, new ideas and perspectives are of high value. Create committee policies that ensure rotation of members to bring in new ideas and create a large cadre of culture champions throughout the organization. 

Identify and set the ideal term for members to serve that best fits the organization. Ideally this would be one to two year terms per member. However, it’s important to note this may vary depending on the nature of the workforce. For example, industries with high employee turnover may wish to reduce this timeframe. Members should have the option to fulfill multiple or consecutive terms when approved by senior leadership.

Establish Purpose and Logistics

 Create a charter

Create a charter that clearly defines the committee’s purpose and reason for design. For example, company leadership clearly defined what they want the company culture to be? If this desired culture has already been defined, then the purpose of the committee should be to help build and maintain that culture. Within the charter also include a commitment to continuously evaluate the impact the committee has on driving culture within the organization and any goals set forth by senior leadership.

While activities created and sponsored by the committee can be fun in nature, by no means is it a social club that’s sole purpose is to host happy hours. Clearly distinguish the committee’s mission to help develop and evolve organizational culture in the charter.

Other recommended topics to include in the charter: 

● Committee member’s responsibility and roles. Members operate as a voice from their respective functions/departments for colleagues to bring forward cultural concerns or successes
● The committee’s meeting cadence
● How members are selected
● Length of member terms
● Budget resources and uses

Develop a roadmap

Envisioning and driving organizational culture is similar to developing a product or service. Create a roadmap for where the organization’s culture stands today, and where the committee and senior leadership would like to see it go. Fill in all the steps in between, both those that are easily identified, and leaving room for those that are realized along the way.

Understand the culture "deliverables" that senior leadership would like to achieve and identify, and incorporate the milestones into the roadmap.

Set a budget

Driving culture within an organization may require financial resources depending on the business needs and what the cultural roadmap projects. A budget is best set by the committee considering the events and resources needed, which can vary across organizations of different sizes. Firms such as Google have reported modest investments in this area, however it is best to evaluate and evolve the budget each year to align with the organization’s needs. 

Meeting Logistics

To keep all members involved, and free discussion flowing, set up a rotating schedule that grants each member the opportunity to lead a meeting. 

An additional member should be tasked with taking notes on key points and final decisions. This person will also be responsible for summarizing and communicating actionable steps and information required for the next session. 

If employees span multiple offices, ensure the technological resources are available to connect them to the discussion. Web cameras are highly recommended, as it greatly heightens remote worker presence.

Maintain transparency with meeting schedules and outcomes. While not every note or detail needs to be shared, publish key outcomes from each meeting on your company’s intranet site or other available internal channel. This will allow employees across the organization to see what the committee is working on and where progress is relative to the broader roadmap.

Member Roles

The culture committee’s ultimate goal is to foster and drive culture within the organization. As such, each member assumes a responsibility to create excitement and momentum surrounding organizational culture. 

As a collective group, committee members will seek to identify cultural roadblocks and plan events or programs to address or promote the desired organizational culture. On an individual level, members should seek opportunities to gather continuous insights into how employees across the organization feel about the current state of culture. This can be through formal attendance at key business meetings, or simply by chatting with employees in the hallway as they go to grab a cup of coffee.

By focusing on employee listening, committee members have a front row seat to understanding the strengths and opportunities surrounding the organization’s culture.

Whether the topic is brought up casually in the hallway, or at a formal meeting, questions that members can ask their colleagues to spark the conversation include:

● What do employees feel is working with the organization’s culture?
● What does the organization’s culture mean to them?
● Are any culture initiatives or events failing?
● What do employees find exciting about working at the organization?
● What energizes employees to come to work?
● Are there any conflicting messages or actions within the organization that do not support the culture the organization is striving to achieve?

Act locally

For organizations that stretch beyond a single office, create a team of volunteers from each office, site or area who are tasked with communicating and promoting culture at the local level.

Local volunteers fill a much-needed role of connecting employees to the broader organization, its purpose and its culture initiatives. This can be in the form of implementing team events and activities being done at other offices, or simply acting as a channel for local employees to voice cultural concerns or pass along ideas to ignite culture in their respective area or office. 

Be sure to include remote employees in this initiative. Volunteers for remote teams can be tasked with translating culture-driven events and initiatives into solutions that work well for remote workers. For example, video chat meetings can be hosted, or if resources allow, arrange an in-person networking event at a mutually accessible location. For any town hall or organization-wide meetings that require in-person attendance, arrange an opportunity for the remote team to connect.

Employees who fill this role should be self-identified culture enthusiasts who enjoy connecting with and listening to their colleagues. Strong communication skills are a must. 

Promote, Communicate & Energize

Leadership Buy-In

Obtain leadership buy-in, to not only acquire the necessary resources, but to cascade excitement throughout the organization. With senior leadership backing the committee, employees throughout the organization will recognize the committee's efforts as significant and legitimate. 

Ensure the committee has opportunities to present its ideas and initiatives to senior leaders directly, in person when possible. This maintains engagement across members, builds excitement and provides a sense of fulfillment to members.

Celebrate & Promote

Promote culture efforts both internally and externally. Intranet sites and internal news blasts are great ways to spread the news regarding upcoming events, accomplishments and initiatives regarding culture. This extends beyond initiatives created by the committee itself and should include initiatives from any other part of the organization, such as promoting the ongoing employee engagement surveys or celebrating new initiatives or programs,.

Be sure to share core values and cultural initiatives directly, or indirectly, with customers and other stakeholders. A strong culture is a competitive advantage that should have high visibility.

Share the names and pictures of the committee members in communications to familiarize and create connections. 

Develop a brand image for the committee. This goes beyond simply designing a logo or tagline, but rather cultivating a set of qualities that mirrors the overall organization’s values and purpose. Communicate this across the organization via the intranet, bulletin boards in common areas or in email news blasts. Take pride in the brand and promote it.

Maintain transparency. Look for channels to internally publish meeting notes. This allows colleagues across the organization see the thought and efforts being put into maintaining and nurturing the culture in which they work.