Educate. Collaborate. Implement. Connecting Culture to Strategy
At our third Education Forum on June 1st David Tadman gave an engaging talk to a packed room. He spoke about the importance of culture, and the power it can have when it’s purposefully connected to your business strategy.
To demonstrate the true power of this connection, Dave told the story of Westcor Construction who has been a client of Stawowski McGill for the past three years. Bob Robinson, the President of Westcor, generously spoke about the struggles Westcor had at the time; wanting to grow past the ceiling they were hitting, but being frustrated with identifying the next steps. They had great people, but no one seemed to know where the company was going. They needed to focus on answering some of the following questions that are common with many businesses:
- Do your employees (or you as an employee) know the purpose, cause, or belief of your business?
- Can you or your team articulate your core values?
- How do you communicate these values consistently to your team and your market?
The first step to answering these questions is to identify your core values and purposes. David discussed Simon Sinek’s book “Start with Why”, and introduced the audience to the Golden Circle. The premise is this: you know what you do, you know how you do it, but do you know WHY you do it? Being able to communicate your Why will have a dramatic effect on the relationships and culture of your organization, both internally and outwardly to your market. Once you have a defined vision and cause, you can begin to execute.
The second step is to develop a method to execute your strategy that is driven by your purpose and core values that you are now able to articulate. David introduced the attendees to some tools to help fill in the blanks, starting with a One Page Strategic Plan. This valuable tool helps business owners plan for success by writing down big goals, and creating specific measurable steps, and the accountability to reach them.
Once the culture and strategy have been defined, the work begins to consistently communicate your strategy and vision to your staff and to your market. This step requires daily effort, and there is no end to how much you need to communicate. Dave highlighted some of the tools that Westcor used, including one-on-one meetings, town halls, cohesive branding, as well as digital feedback tools, like 15Five.
We then circled back to Bob Robinson, who spoke about how these systems and efforts have changed Westcor’s business and engaged their culture to the point where it’s taken on a life of its own, and is now set up for continued success.
We are thankful to all who were able to attend. If you’d like to know when our next Education Forum is announced, please let us know!