Photo by Mahmud Ahsan via Unsplash
Building team culture and connection has gained so much importance for organizational success since remote work became the norm. Many organizations had to make a sudden leap in 2020 from a mostly in-office work culture to a whole new way of working – and most of us are still trying to figure out the details. Partnership members are finding lots of ways to build a positive culture and collaborative working relationships in this new workplace reality. Two seasoned leaders share some of their lessons learned from the big shift to remote and hybrid work culture.
Doing it this way on purpose
“We are very intentional about office culture,” says Keesa Smith, executive director of Arkansas Advocates for Children and Family. From scheduling standing times for in-person work sessions, to book clubs that build staff relationships, the organization thinks through what it will take to build the culture their team wants and needs. Building connectivity and relationships does not happen by accident – the work of relationship-building is part of the plan, and the specific expectations and tasks that go along with relationship-building are actually in staff members’ job descriptions.
Kentucky Youth Advocates also brings a high level of intentionality to building staff culture and connectivity, starting right from orientation. One of the tools KYA uses is “onboarding buddies,” says Chief People Officer Patricia Tennen. KYA asks a more experienced staff member (someone who’s not going to be working closely with the new staffer) to be their staff buddy. The buddy role entails taking the new staff member out to lunch, scheduling quick check-ins with them weekly for the first month or so, and giving a new staffer space to ask things they might not feel comfortable asking their new supervisor. That relationship builds social connection for a new staff member, and it can also help set up learning and mentoring opportunities that are often hard to find in a mostly remote workplace.
Both organizations also put a lot of thought into the purpose of the in-person work time they do have. If staff are required to come into the office for a certain amount of time each week or month, what is the purpose of that time (and does everybody know what it is)? KYA holds two in-person days per month: one at the monthly staff meeting focused on connecting with each other and learning, and the other focused on planning and advancing collaborations. Arkansas Advocates meets in person on Mondays for all-staff meetings (with the Northwest office staffers joining by Zoom) and uses a Wednesday Zoom meeting for social connections like celebrations, games, and book club gatherings.
Creating space for connection and caring
Book clubs are a popular way for organizations to create space for meaningful interpersonal connections in a fairly low-pressure setting. Because book clubs are an optional activity, staff who crave more time together can opt-in, reading books together that may be related to the mission or to workplace skills like leadership development.
When the staff member who facilitated the book club departed to start her own business, AACF made sure the weekly “fun” meeting where book discussions happen was on the next person’s job description. “We’ve been really intentional on telling the next round of people that this is something that’s very important to our culture and we want to keep it going,” says Keesa Smith.
At KYA, one of the best ways to build social connections is by serving on the Fun Committee. Committee members coordinate birthdays, set up the Kudoboards, plan staff outings, volunteer workdays, and expressions of care when a staff member experiences a loss. “It turns out newer staff really like to be on this committee,” says Patricia Tennen. The committee’s job is to build caring and connection among staff, but it also achieves that goal in perhaps a less anticipated way – by building relationships among those on the Fun Committee itself.
Tech tools that work
Nobody likes overloaded email inboxes, but they are a difficult aspect of remote/hybrid work life to avoid. Different organizations swear by different tools to slow the inbox deluge, whether that’s Teams, Slack, Google chats, or project management tools like Asana and Monday.com. KYA was lucky to bring on a team member with deep experience in project management software. She used Monday.com to develop a platform for their team and spent months teaching everyone how to use it to ensure robust adoption and clear standards.
Stepping away from technology takes wisdom too. “There are times when it’s just easier if we’re looking face to face,” says Keesa Smith. “I get about 80 emails a day, so if I get behind on emails, I’ve missed y’alls whole conversation. If we end up sending more than three emails, it probably needs to be a meeting.”
Communicate your cultural norms clearly
Patricia Tennen shared a great story that illustrates the importance of not just building the culture you want in your organization but communicating and maintaining it with purpose.
KYA has some very long-tenured staff, including executive director Terry Brooks. Terry holds dear four strategic imperatives that exemplify who KYA is: (1) Mess with success, (2) People count, (3) Sustain the bottom line, and (4) Win baby win! Anyone who has worked for a while with Terry and KYA has these strategic imperatives ingrained.
Since the switch to remote work, many organizations have found it harder to transmit the important ideas that make up their organizational DNA. There came a point recently when folks at KYA realized the newer staffers didn’t know those strategic imperatives – and that gap in shared understanding was causing some frustration on both sides. So KYA decided to take on one strategic imperative at a staff meeting each quarter. They collect data with a pre-survey before each staff meeting asking what does this strategic imperative mean? How have you seen it in action? And how can we celebrate it? By the end of the year, they will have made it through all of them (win baby win!).
For many organizations, remote and hybrid work arrangements have made it harder to nurture work relationships and create the culture we want. Both Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families and Kentucky Youth Advocates demonstrate a deep commitment to nurturing intentional relationships among the people who power their organizations’ success.
Many thanks to Keesa Smith, Executive Director, Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families, and Patricia Tennen, Chief People Officer at Kentucky Youth Advocates, for generously sharing their expertise and insights for this blog.
