Ryan McCarty, Co-founderIn an interview with Manage HR, Ryan McCarty, Co-founder, Culture of Good, shares insights into the company, its history, and the unique approach that Culture of Good undertakes to help clients.
What are the factors that spurred the conception of Culture of Good?
I started Culture of Good as a movement within TCC almost a decade back. The CEO of TCC, Scott Moorehead, was inspired by hearing one of my presentations. He wanted to provide employees with a sense of purpose and passion that goes beyond (or is connected to) their everyday work. My ideas were widely accepted within TCC, and they witnessed more engaged employees and customers.
After a few years, I, along with Moorehead, wrote a book, “Build a Culture of Good: Unleash Results by Letting Your Employees Bring Their Soul to Work.” The purpose was to help leaders understand the importance of building a great culture that connects employees with larger goals beyond the paycheck.
We gradually started to evolve as a company. This prompted us to build a movement of good throughout the business world. We then started to develop an engagement process that could be implemented in different organizations.
The process was developed a couple of years ago, and we have retooled it to the current state. We today create internal Culture Champions, who can go into their own organizations to build their Culture of Good.
What are the challenges that businesses are facing today in the culture transformation space?
Culture impacts everything, and everything impacts culture. However, most businesses struggle to define their culture. When I walk into a company and speak to hundred employees regarding the culture, all of them reflect different perspectives. This happens owing to organizations’ inability to engage everyone with a central message or mission.
We don’t believe in fixing the culture of businesses. We help them realize what makes them special and build on it to create a force for good and amplify the heartbeat of the business.
While doing the culture work, we don’t just blindly conduct surveys or focus on engagement scores. We believe that organizational culture is the collection of values, expectations, and practices that guide the actions of every team member. It’s an ongoing process – a commitment made by an organization. So, every culture strengthening initiative needs proper implementation.
We enable the leadership team to clearly identify what makes them special as well as equip them with a strategic plan to champion the culture they want. Without this strategic approach, it becomes difficult to engage all the stakeholders.
Please shed some light on the process that you follow while engaging with clients and how it helps them address all the challenges.
Most organizations need a simple method to define, develop, and drive the culture that they’re passionate about. We have worked hard for the last ten years and invested millions of dollars and hundreds of hours in speaking with organizational change management specialists and psychologists to build a process that can be implemented in any organization regardless of its size.
Our process follows organizational change management principles. It ensures that engagement is built into the process at every level to empower every single person to champion an organization’s culture. It creates a deeper connection within the organization, and with the growth of the business, teams grow a sense of camaraderie. So, thriving businesses never come across the risks of losing the traits that made them special.
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We always strive to be the movement of good, not just a moment of good
We have created a certification course for internal Culture Champions. The three-day training program is designed to teach team leads or individuals (who directly deal with people) regarding the critical aspects of fostering a stronger business culture.
After three days of training, we host three workshops over the first three months with that Culture Champion. The goal is to ensure that an organization embraces the Culture of Good and every team feels a part of it. We embed sustainability tactics to ensure that the outcomes of the strategy meet or exceed clients’ expectations. Our goal is to gradually increase the number of Culture Champions to bring a complete change.
We also provide businesses with a measuring tool to (on a scale of one to seven) measure how teams and individuals are living up to the values of the company. The measurement is done based on the observable behaviors that are identified in the first or second workshop with the Culture Champion.
Our approach brings tangible outcomes for a business, such as higher engagement scores or a decrease in employee attrition. For example, within a year of launching Culture of Good, TCC witnessed a 20 percent reduction in turnover, saving them $3.7 million. We also contributed to driving their top-line sales up by building a strong team.
What are the factors that differentiate Culture of Good in the market?
We certify culture champions, and the engagement process is driven by Community Good. We always strive to be the movement of good, not just a moment of good. Our objective is not to transform your existing culture but strengthen it by creating an engaging workplace through purpose-driven work.
It has taken a significant amount of time for us to define the processes based on businesses’ unique cultural objectives. That is why our processes are easy to implement, and they never burden clients with additional projects or programs.
We also host a live weekly podcast called Champion Your Culture where industry veterans share their inputs to help business leaders strengthen the organizational culture.
