Starting with writing his book, Colin J Browne addresses the question: How do you create a happy sandpit? One where all the individuals are “playing” peacefully in various groups, without any hostile sandkickers. This metaphor equates the sandpit on a playground with that of an office environment. The idea is that magnificent sandcastles (read: successful projects and amazing accomplishments) can be achieved when the sandpit is conducive to it and all builders are working united towards the same goal. In short, this is the blueprint put forward for organisational culture.
Now, more than a decade later, Happy Sandpit, the company born from the book with the same name, has worked with global and local brands, helping them with new employee induction processes, leadership manifestos and core value identification. The company’s next step forward is the annual culture summit that shares vital information with the human resources officers and business leaders that relates to building culture.
Culture Drives Profitability
According to Great Place to Work, profits don’t create great workplaces. It’s the other way around.
1. Higher Retention Rates
Culture’s impact on talent retention is unmistakable. With a strong company culture that prompts high levels of trust, businesses can recruit top talent, or even more so, cause employees to stick around for longer.
2. Great Culture Reduces Burnout
Where there is a bigger emphasis on a positive, supportive organisational culture, there is an emphasis on the people who achieve goals, not just the goals themselves. This leads to motivated employees who know they are not just another number.
3. Great Culture Fosters Innovation
A positive outlook with workers who are encouraging and encouraged, they work harder and innovate faster.
More Empathy, Less Taking One for the Team
“We are not focusing on culture, meaning that you are focusing on managing individuals. If culture is in place, individuals can work together within the bounds of what the culture allows,” says Colin Browne, founder of Happy Sandpit. “As leaders, it’s not our responsibility to ensure employees are happy, but rather we need to create an environment where happiness is possible.”
Browne expands on the importance of engagement. “We must understand that all we’ve ever hired were intelligent, rational adults, so getting input from everyone can only expand the pool of knowledge we have in an organisation,”
For most organisations, it is necessary to create hearing and listening mechanisms.
“If we want to create a space where happiness is possible, leaders need to be more visible, approachable and available. They need to make the hierarchy feel flat.”
Another note he makes is that a bigger emphasis needs to be placed on humanity. “Businesses need to learn that there needs to be more empathy,” says Browne. “People are human beings, not machines.”
He shares that there is often the belief that people should always ‘take one for the team,’ but this is not a reasonable way of working with people. There is a need for empathy and understanding, not just an expectation that individuals need to be big and tough.
Trust Builds Culture
“Vulnerability fosters trust,” says Nick van Woekom, Managing Director at Haute Cabrière. For this vulnerability to have the desired effect, management must use the relevant environment and context.
“Your staff will not be able to be vulnerable if you, as the leader, don’t allow the power to collapse and come down to their level to sit and talk with them,” he shares. “The environment and context of a round boardroom table among them matters.”
In his own experience, he found that a meeting on the production floor with the production team was much more conducive to trust than being in a stiff boardroom or executive office. “You have to drop the ego and get to know people personally.”
Van Woerkom notes that where a company is moving to grow their culture in a new direction, change management should go hand-in-hand with it. “It’s a mindshift. Every small change that leadership make and reinforces every day has a large impact on the business at the end of the day.”
People in business who drive change, Van Woerkom calls change champions. “These are the people who you can take from an employee committee to be the voice of employees, to help drive change and keep a pulse on what the impact of changes is.”
The evidence is clear: the sheer calibre of speakers at the Summit was phenomenal. Each brought with them the proven impact that culture has had in the brands where they work. This leaves the attendee with the reaffirmed belief that it can be achieved.
