Three links for leaders to consider between how your organization celebrates and its culture

How do you celebrate? How do you make decisions? How do you manage conflict? It was a Wednesday morning a little over five years ago and I was seated in my usual spot beside the CEO at the weekly Senior Leadership Team meeting of the hospital I worked for at the time.

We were discussing organizational culture, and more specifically the culture of our weekly meetings. The CEO had invited a round of reflections and I, in my role as Director of Strategy, was sharing my response. 

There are, of course, many inputs into organizational culture. Two that are talked about a lot are the words and behaviour of senior leaders. (Ideally, these align; but, let’s be honest: they don’t always.) 

Another, as I wrote about here, is organizational values. (Including the willingness to get curious when organizational culture falls out-of-step with them.)

What I shared with my colleagues that morning, though, was my sense that if we wanted to get curious about our own meeting culture and practices we should focus on three questions: How do you celebrate? How do you make decisions? How do you manage conflict?

An often-cited example of what’s working, or isn’t

While the second two questions come up a lot in my work as a consultant, facilitator, and coach, it may surprise some to know how often celebration also surfaces. In fact, celebration (or the lack of it) is often-cited as an example when people talk about what’s working, or isn’t, in the culture of their workplace. 

That’s not to say people don’t also talk about things like pay and benefits, or whether opportunity is equitably distributed. They do. But they also talk about how much they laughed (or dozed off) at the last office summer gathering. Or, how noticeable it is that their organization has equity, diversity, and inclusion related statements on its website but hasn’t held an event for an annual day / week / month of identity-related recognition in years. 

How do you celebrate?

There are many reasons for organizations to celebrate. From holidays (both statutory and nonstatutory), to local, national, and international days / weeks / months of recognition, to individual, team, or organizational achievements . . . the list goes on. 

The choice not to celebrate at all is also an option. At least, not to celebrate officially. Individual teams and groups might hold their own gatherings; but, an organization might choose not to sponsor them (either financially, or through recognizing them in its internal or external communication channels.) 

We are always practicing something though, even if it is choosing not to practice. 

So if you are a leader or someone who helps shape culture in an organization, here are three links between how you celebrate and your organization’s culture to reflect on:

• Inclusion.
• Achievement.
• Team Building. 

Inclusion

As I write this we are on the cusp of the multi-holiday season in North America.

I’m sure I’ll overlook some of them but on my radar are: Winter Solstice, which is the shortest day and longest night of the year for those of us in the northern hemisphere. It is a ceremonial day for some Indigenous folks, and many Persians celebrate it as Yalda. Then there’s Christmas, Kwanzaa, and Chanukah with which more people tend to be familiar. New Year’s Day is January 1st for a majority of us. Though, for many others the Lunar New Year is around the corner, and there are a multitude of other new year celebrations throughout the year.    

Does your organization celebrate some or all of these holidays? Does it focus more on those that are statutory holidays in North America like Christmas and New Year’s? Or, maybe those plus a few others that reflect the larger cultural groups making up its employees, partners, or clients? 

I was a senior manager with the YMCA of Greater Toronto charity for a few years about a decade ago. One of the things I appreciated about it was how each of its major community centres reflected their local populations through their celebrations. For example, the Markham location had a big Lunar New Year gathering each year, while the Brampton location had an annual Diwali celebration.     

Celebrations are far from the only, and are definitely not the most important, area to focus on if you want to foster belonging and inclusion. However, they are very visible. If done thoughtfully, they can be part of a solid foundation in your organization’s equity, diversity, and inclusion plans. 

Three tips: inclusion and celebration

• Assign clear responsibility for coordinating transparent decision making around which holidays are celebrated. 
• Ensure identity-related recognition days / weeks / months (such as Black History Month, Indigenous History Month, and Pride Month) are thoughtfully integrated into decision making. 
• Create the conditions (including paid time and an appropriate budget) for some members of the group(s) connected to each holiday and identity-related recognition event to lead the planning, if they wish to. 

Achievement 

In his Harvard Business Review article The Neuroscience of Trust, Paul J. Zak writes about eight management behaviours that foster a culture of trust. According to Zak: “Employees in high-trust organizations are more productive, have more energy at work, collaborate better with their colleagues, and stay with their employers longer than people working at low-trust companies.”

Even better from an employee wellness perspective: “they also suffer less chronic stress and are happier with their lives.”

How does this relate to celebration? One of the behaviours Zak profiles is recognizing excellence. He names several factors that shape the effect this recognition can have on trust: when it occurs immediately after a goal has been met, when it comes from peers, and when it is tangible, unexpected, personal, and public. 

How does your organization recognize excellence? From “shout outs” between team members in daily huddles to organization-wide, formal celebrations — there are so many big and small ways to celebrate achievement as one piece of the puzzle in building a culture of trust. 

Three tips: achievement and celebration

• Make it easy to celebrate in the moment. Create daily or weekly practices so that recognition doesn’t take place too long after an achievement. 
• Push decision making out so that peers have a say in which achievements get celebrated. 
• Be thoughtful about when and how to celebrate publicly on a larger scale. As Zak notes, “ public recognition not only uses the power of the crowd to celebrate successes, but also inspires others to aim for excellence. And it gives top performers a forum for sharing best practices, so others can learn from them.”

Team building

Another behaviour Zak profiles for building a culture of trust is intentional relationship building: “It may sound like forced fun, but when people care about one another, they perform better because they don’t want to let their teammates down.”

Does your organization integrate intentional relationship building into your celebration practices? For example, do you encourage those planning celebrations to include interactive activities as part of the festivities? 

I look back fondly on the moments my former workplaces integrated intentional relationship building into their celebrations. I’m not talking about small talk over some food and beverages. I’m talking about the time one of my teams went curling for our holiday party. Or, the time the same hospital from my opening story brought in Choir! Choir! Choir! to lead folks through a hilariously fun shared singing experience.   

Three tips: team building and celebration

• Provide options. Not everyone will feel comfortable learning to curl, or joining a sing-along. Make sure there are other ways to interact the group, or alternative activities in larger groups
• Encourage collaboration. Want to hold a pumpkin carving competition or multi-holiday office decorating challenge? Invite team entries rather than solo efforts. 
• Ask for feedback. Engage team members in decision-making around how to integrate team building into your celebration practices. (Psst: another of the eight behaviours Zak profiles is to give people discretion in how they do their work!)

The intersection of culture and strategy

“How do you celebrate?” might seem to some as almost too simplistic a question when it comes to culture shaping. However, when you step back and think about the intersection between celebration and an organization’s culture as it relates to the areas of inclusion, achievement, and team building, the benefits of being intentional about how you celebrate are clear.

I was recently gathered with a group of fellow nonprofit strategy consultants. One of them reminded us of the famous quote “culture eats strategy for breakfast” from management consultant Peter Drucker.

One of the reasons I specialize in what I call “community-centred” strategic planning is because I believe successful nonprofit strategy development and implementation must tap into and enhance the best of an organization’s culture. It’s why I like to say that I help you to make better decisions and have greater impact. And, I also help you to co-create deeper connection. 

Interested in talking about how I might support you with your organizational culture or strategy? I’d love to hear from you. 

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Valery catalyzes people and organizations dedicated to social change to make better decisions, have greater impact, and co-create deeper connection.

Click here to learn more about Valery’s consulting, facilitation, and coaching services.