3 essential ingredients for good organizational culture

We've all seen those awe-inspiring videos of schools of fish moving and flowing in complete alignment, behaving like one entity with a shared brain. It looks like something that would take painstaking effort to plan and execute but it's spontaneous, with each little fish furthering the group's objectives intuitively.

It's no accident that stock photo websites offer hundreds of images of this phenomenon. The 'school of fish' metaphor is a powerful one that many businesses love. It is the ultimate corporate dream—individuals working together as one to further the goals of the group.

However, while many organizations want this result, they don't want to, or don't know how to, put in the effort to make it happen. Too often, conversations about organizational culture are relegated to pretty printouts on notice boards, without truly influencing the ground reality.

1. Big-picture thinking

Big schools of fish often start small.

What can we learn from the small teams that built the tech startups that eventually conquered the globe? How were they able to do so much in so little time with such a limited workforce? These handfuls of people knew the potency of their business' big idea; they knew how it could change the technology and business landscapes, and they knew how it would impact people and society at large. Because of this, they were able to live and breathe the company's mission.

There are two important things that happen in cases like these:

• Employees feel their contribution to the company is meaningful.
• Employees feel the company's contribution to society is meaningful.

In the past, companies relied on chains of command and management layers to enforce their objectives and goals in a top-down manner. But as the business landscape has matured, many organizations have realized that the true levers of business growth are more abstract, like culture and big-picture thinking.

When the company culture encourages big-picture thinking, workers feel that their contribution matters, and that they are creating something of lasting value for others. They feel like they have a shared cause. What they do daily feels less like crossing things off a to-do list, and more like they are connecting with others and the larger society through their work.

Big-picture thinking needs to be instilled in every tier of the organization. Indeed, for it to be successful, it needs to be so.

2. Autonomy

While big-picture thinking is about the collective spirit, autonomy is all about the individual and their sense of agency.

Becoming a pro-autonomy organization usually means switching from a fear-based environment to a trust-based one.

In organizations with rigid hierarchies, managers tend to demote themselves to micromanagers, and consequently, employee morale suffers. They do not realize that their own potential impact on the organization and their productivity suffers as a result of obsessively hand-holding their team members. Instead of thinking big and making strategic decisions, they get lost in the nitty-gritty. As for non-management employees, their initiative and zeal are chipped away over time, as they see more benefit in producing safe, bland work tailor-made for their immediate manager's approval. Free thinking is stifled and everyone looks to conform. What's lost in the process is a vital ingredient for any modern business to thrive today—creativity.

When the organization trusts its employees, they see it and value it. This independence fosters resourcefulness, problem-solving skills, and their ability to think on their feet. Employees respond by rewarding the organization with their enthusiasm and energy. They become proactive, and they no longer hesitate to color outside the lines and supply fresh ideas.

In a competitive landscape, organizations are starting to realize that they cannot shy away from risk, but must expose themselves to it in a deliberate, but controlled, manner. Under these circumstances, the out-of-the-box thinking that stems from employee autonomy is vital to growth.

3. Learning paths

It is perhaps a counterintuitive principle of life that growing is often less about focusing on one's own growth than about helping others grow. This is true in both life and business.

A good organization is one that doesn't just look at its employees as resources to fuel growth, but concerns itself with the development of its employees. When workers realize that the organization takes learning and growth paths seriously, employee morale significantly improves. This makes them more engaged at work.

Most organizations are aware of the importance of employee development initiatives. However, like in so many situations, short-term goals often supersede long-term goals, and development gets pushed to the back burner. As a result, the organization's growth and culture suffer in the long run.

An organization's attitude towards learning paths plays a crucial role in its reputation in the job market. Those who do not strive to provide these opportunities are less able to attract high-quality talent. Meanwhile, qualified candidates flock to companies that are known to invest in employee-centric initiatives.

In a post-industrial paradigm, career paths are more fluid than ever, with middle-management layers continuing to disappear. Unlike their predecessors, modern employees are not concerned with job security. They understand that permanence is a hard promise to keep given the economy's boom and bust cycles, and this does not bother them, because they do not seek it. They don't want to be tied to one company for the rest of their lives.

Here's a second counter-intuitive principle to consider: today, organizations that focus on making their employees more employable often become more attractive to their workers and new candidates. In other words, it is by giving people the skills to easily jump to other organizations that companies often have an easier time retaining talent. In a low-learning career track, employees feel the pressure to jump ship so as not to sabotage their employability in the long run. However, if their current organization is actively enhancing their resume, it's not a bad place to be.

Culture matters

In a technology-driven world where companies can replicate each other's competitive advantages faster than ever, the intangibles are becoming the true differentiators. The factors that contribute to company culture can have a profound impact on employees. Getting it right is crucial. Leaders like to display happy faces on their websites and promotional materials. But they need to want badly enough to make the emotions in these photos a day-to-day reality. After all, people are what drive organizations forward.