Employees For Culture Innovation
Small project experiments started by employees can spark meaningful changes in workplace culture.
We welcome college and university students and their teachers as collaborators.
This website and the experiments are free, compliments of Cultures In Action Corporation. For more information, contact Dr. Jerry Wagner at [email protected].
Company Employees
Our goal is to inspire employees, alone or with a small group of colleagues, to start simple grassroots experiments that might lead to companywide workplace culture improvements. To help achieve our goal, we suggest experiments with actionable guidance.
When a team of employees demonstrates positive results from small-scale projects, it creates a sense of validation that helps other employees feel more comfortable and confident in embracing the idea. Essentially, the efforts of a few employees act as “proof” of concept to other employees, including management.
There are many papers, blogs, videos, and conferences on “how to build a thriving culture.” One example is “Creating an Innovation Culture: Key Characteristics and Examples You Can Model.” However, that article and nearly all these resources are repetitive generic ideas and fail to provide actionable guidance.
College and University Students
Most graduating college and university students will begin their careers as employees, and the culture of their employers will be a part of their daily lives. We suggest that teachers and professors use our experiments as part of their classes to better prepare them for that time. This could also lead to outreach projects, where students and their teachers work with local companies and their employees to implement the experiments. We would also welcome a collaborative effort with teachers to create a teaching module for Company Workspace Cultures that could be adopted in various classes.
Jerry, had a University Support Program with hundreds of campuses worldwide at his first company, Execucom Systems Corp. He would be delighted to work with students and their teachers on this new intitiative.
Experiment Number One
Title: Creating an Annual Culture Plan
Importance: While culture may sometimes feel intangible, its impact is undeniable. A culture plan should be equally important as strategic planning. It helps to ensure that core values are understood and integrated into daily operations.
The Experiment: The experiment is for your team to create a culture plan for the team. The plan’s drivers are the core values that guide workplace behaviors and decision-making. In this experiment, you will arrive at what your team believes to be the most important core values for them. Then, they will arrive at specific actions to achieve each of them.
The experiment will use an online self-guided software template. To learn more about the software, see www.cultureplanningmodel.com. When you are ready, we’ll have a short Zoom meeting to show you just how the template works. Then, you can decide whether or not to proceed.
Reading this short introduction might seem daunting, but as you will see, the process is straightforward and enjoyable. The experiment’s contributor provides free demos, advice, and software.
Call for Examples
We love to hear stories about employees taking initiative with small, bootstrapped projects to enhance their workplace culture. If we feature your example, you can choose to stay anonymous or be recognized. Just click Submit an Example and send us your story.
Previous Experiments
Two Software Products
Cultures in Action is a non-profit benefits corporation that offers two software products.
Culture Quest is a collaborative software template for building culture plans that include vision, mission, core values, and actionable projects for each core value. The online plan is then available to employees for review and feedback.
We especially emphasize using the software to create team plans with well-defined core values and actions to support them. While company-wide core values provide a broad framework for long-term objectives, team values focus on the day-to-day interactions, collaboration, and problem-solving within teams. This distinction is vital because, unlike company values guiding high-level goals, team values shape the team’s daily behaviors and communication.
By establishing team values and involving members in the process, teams foster a shared understanding of how to work together and treat one another. This creates an environment of trust and psychological safety, where people feel comfortable sharing ideas, taking risks, sharing, and offering feedback.
For more, see www.cultureplanningmodel.com and click here for more. The soft launch (beta test) is free through 2024.
Fast Vote is a suite of fourteen survey templates. It is ultra easy to use, and data is transparent with no anonymity. See www.fastvotesurveys.com. The soft launch (beta test) is free through 2024.
Cultures In Action: The Visionaries
Cultures in Action is a non-profit benefits corporation that provides Culture Quest, Fast Vote, and Employees for Cultures for Innovation.
www.cultureplanningmodel.com
www.culturesquestsoftware.com
www.culturesinaction.com
www.fastvotesurveys.com
www.employeesforcultureinnovation.com
www.timelessvalues.com
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