Enhance your organizational culture with best practices from industry leaders: feedback, collaboration and learning & development
A strong cultural identity is essential for businesses success. It helps to keep employees happy, encourages new ideas, and leads to overall success. But what makes the best companies stand out? The secret lies in how they build and maintain their workplace culture. In this article, we explore some of the successful strategies used by top companies. You can apply these practical tips and examples to enhance your organization’s culture and achieve excellent results.
PIXAR: daily reviews to foster a strong feedback culture
A while ago, I posted an article explaining why a strong feedback culture is important and how to achieve it. One of my biggest inspirations to write this article was PIXAR. To foster innovation and provide their employees the opportunity to get feedback on their work, they have a daily review process, often referred to as “dailies”. In the dailies, team members present their current work, such as animation sequences, storyboards, or concept art. What is unique, is that the work is often not even close to being done. This way, the team can improve during the process, rather than waiting until the end to adjust Because everyone has a voice and candidness is promoted, Dailies allow artists to look at their work from a different perspective and make adjustments in time to create a stronger product.
Airbnb: An example of how the office inspires a culture of collaboration
Airbnb puts a lot of focus on collaboration. The company’s mission is to create a world where anyone can belong anywhere, fostering human connections and community. This approach was crucial for maintaining innovation, agility, and employee satisfaction during periods of rapid expansion. However, as they were growing, it became harder and harder to maintain their collaborative organizational culture. One way to address this challenge, was through their office.
To design their San Francisco headquarters, the company invited their interior designers to spend four months working in the office. This allowed the designers to get to know the company’s culture and activities better. The result is a beautiful headquarters that promotes teamwork, with plenty of green spaces and open areas. There are various culture-themed walls meant to inspire the employees. The kitchen feels like a home, and the meeting rooms are designed like cozy living rooms. This setup encourages employees to share ideas and work on their own projects to create better tools and processes.
Microsoft: Windows into their continuous learning culture for continuous growth
Now, with Viva Insights, Microsoft helps other companies help foster a learning culture. They are the perfect company to do this, as they have been working on their learning culture for a while. At the heart of Microsoft’s culture is a belief in the power of a growth mindset. Before Microsoft popularized it, few companies used the term "growth mindset." Microsoft has since implemented several programs to foster it, including an annual hackathon for leadership development, high-risk projects like HoloLens to embrace and learn from failure, and a redefined talent program that views talent as a dynamic quality. All of this has resulted in a robust learning environment that continually evolves and adapts, driving innovation and leadership within Microsoft and now extending these benefits to other organizations through Viva Insights.
