The ‘culture’ industry, like all others, goes through shifting beliefs about what’s most important when building strong organisations.
In recent history, there have been a few catch-cries that signify these shifts in perspective. Whether or not he actually said these words, Peter Drucker’s ‘culture eats strategy for breakfast’ seems to imply that culture and strategy could be considered in isolation from one another. Is this to blame for cupcake culture?!
Fast forward a few years and Simon Sinek’s ‘why’ became the new setup in everyone’s PowerPoint presentation. Businesses became obsessed with the golden circles and ‘landing’ their purpose statement.
Don’t get me wrong, purpose is powerful, however, in a race to define it, many businesses trip over themselves and as a result, it has the opposite effect. I can’t help but recall Gillete’s now famous ‘The Best A Man Can Get’, a reengineered meaning calling out toxic masculinity that coincided with a $8 billion dollar write down.
The Twitter comments seems to say it all*
“Get woke, go broke. Stick to selling razors.”
“When did shaving have to get political?”
“Do we really need ‘woke razors?’”
“How to irreparably damage a brand in under 120 seconds: A Documentary.”
“Cringe shaving commercial. See this is actually genius. What Gillette is doing here is trying to lower our testosterone to the point we won’t have to shave anymore.”
Minutes later…COVID hit and how we work took over as the focus. We all experienced this subject as the new central tenet of culture building.
Where are we today? As we published earlier in the year, we engaged our network and found that team happiness is the focus. As we’ve risen out of the COVID fog where we were constantly chasing what the next year might hold, there’s a resounding focus on, now.
At the intersection of these three major ideas in our industry, we land on one powerful truth, Unity.
By taking strategy, culture and purpose, we’ve reimagined them into what is now our most popular team building program, The Big Picture.
To mimic a business environment, we split everyone into teams to work on an individual task. Unbeknownst to participants, these tasks are intrinsically linked. As the session progresses, teams begin to realise they are not in direct competition with each other, but that they have to work together to complete ‘the big picture’, a visual representation of your organisation’s guiding ethos.
As a result of this program, your team gets to take away not only this visual reminder of teamwork and unity, but a stunning abstract piece of art that demonstrates their role in the organisation’s purpose.
While this program is our most requested, we pride ourselves on putting together the most tailored solution possible for our clients. If you have a challenge, we’re here to help you overcome it. Please reach out to us today!
Thanks for reading,
Oliver Sheer
Managing Director, Be Challenged