Sustaining Culture is Creating Culture

Yesterday I was talking to a guy from an engineering firm in Orlando and he was commenting on the cultural changes being implemented at his company. They'd recently been acquired by a large conglomerate that is buying firms all over the country. For the next few months they'll be learning how they're current corporate culture will be shaped by the culture of the conglomerate.

Thinking about the culture of this organization made me realize that even if you're not going through a merger, an acquisition, relocating half the office to Alaska or developing a new market corporate culture is ALWAYS in a constant state of flux. People are changing everyday, coming and going, you're hiring and firing. It is the people who create the culture, thus the culture is always changing. The core values, credo and mission statement can guide that culture at best and get completely ignored at worst.

A lot of people offer us positive compliments on our culture of fun and inspiration at Catch Your Limit. The fact is we work hard on sustaining that culture. We each commit to inspiring each other at our Monday morning meetings and throughout the week. When we fail we hold ourselves accountable. The important thing to know is it doesn't just happen, you have to make a commitment to it. You don't just show up to work one day and say suddenly have a fun environment. Each day you go in and say, "How can we have fun today?"So whether you're working on building a culture that values fun, sales, leadership, creativity or whatever, don't stop working on your culture. Sustaining culture is creating culture and it happens every day.