Where Does Culture Come From in the Workplace?

Culture, as we all would come to know, is learned behavior. No matter where we are from, we all embody many cultures. We’ve learned- and continue to learn- from the people and environment around us. We’ve learned and learn what attitudes and beliefs to adopt. For example, in a classroom setting, we’ve learned and learn from our peers and teachers. At home we’ve learned and learn from our siblings and parents/guardians. And at work we’ve learned and learn from our coworkers. So what do all these places have in common? If it isn’t so clear, let’s try explaining each with a bit more specificity.

In a classroom, we learn from both our classmates and teachers, whose roles are to learn with us and whose roles are to instruct us. At home, we learn from our siblings and/or parents or guardians, whose roles are to help us and to guide us. At work, we learn from our teammates, whose roles are to execute duties with us and whose roles are to lend a hand. In all scenarios, we all work together as a team to accomplish something academic, personal, and/or professional. What does that say about culture creation? They show that culture development comes from the people we directly interact with on a daily basis towards a shared objective. With that said,

Culture in the workplace does not come directly from management.
Culture is created DIRECTLY from how the employees behave with new employees.

While orientation and training days are meant to have new employees familiarize themselves with what to expect from the company and what is expected of them, it does not do the grindstone work that the exposure of sharing everyday functions with a TEAMMATE does.

Culture is created from what the new employee LEARNS from the people and environment of the workplace. If an employee who’s been there for a while says or does something -whatever it may be- in the presence of the new employee, the new employee will experience the manifestations of morale that can (and cannot) exist in the workplace.

In other words, they will recognize what the standards are for creating and maintaining that culture in the workplace.

It is important, as Leaders, to recognize how sensitive this window of time is when hiring new teammates because we would want to be on our best behaviors for creating and reinforcing the kind of culture we would love to see more of.

If our future teammates have different roles than us, then we would want to entrust them with our best teammates who share similar duties as they will. Why? Because if we’re in charge of managing, the new teammates -unless being hired for managing as well- will learn much more from shadowing a teammate who shares the same or similar roles as they do.

Now that we know where culture comes from in the workplace, as Leaders, we are to take care of the people in our charge, no matter what rank we have in an organization. As Leaders we must know how culture is created in the workplace because then we become more empowered to set standards. And by setting the standards of the culture we would love to see more of in our workplace, we take care of the people in our charge, ultimately, because those people will set the standards of the culture that will take care of even more people. And who wouldn’t want to work in an empowered place?

🔴 Be Empowered, my friends.