Does your organisation acknowledge the importance of culture but fail to address it for whatever reason?
It could be because ‘time’ gets in the way or there is always another ‘priority’.
At least acknowledgment is a start, now it’s time for your organisation to make a commitment.
A good way of doing this is to create a culture calendar!
This way you can schedule group activities, training and workshops for the whole year and it provides enough advance notice for everyone to make ‘time’ and commit to them.
It also enables the organiser to set reminders along the journey and ensure there is a structure for what is being delivered for the betterment of your company culture.
If you’re thinking ‘this is a great idea but what sort of activities should I look at scheduling in the calendar’, you could consider anything that brings your team together for team bonding, team development and team building.
It may be monthly morning teas, quarterly fun team building activities, corporate training workshops for groups, annual staff conferences, charity fundraising events, weekly tipping competitions, staff Christmas parties … really any group activities that provide professional outcomes and are focused on fun.
Some more good tips are found in Dwain Richardson’s eBook ‘How to create a positive team culture for success’.
And any business that has more than one employee will benefit from having a culture calendar.
Why? Because a happy worker is a motivated, productive and willing worker, dedicated to the success and vision of the business.
Now as specialist team building and corporate training providers, we deliver numerous programmes as part of culture calendars.
And in recent years we have helped companies put together 12-month culture calendars from the diverse programs we offer plus many other events offered elsewhere.
To give you a simple example of what one can look like, I have slightly modified a calendar we created for a client of ours this year.
January
Team Profiling Workshop
The start of the year is a great time for a staff conference with some professional development outcomes. A Belbin team profiling workshop enables everyone to look at their strengths and weaknesses, and how they best fit within the team. It is useful training in the creation of new teams and re-designing existing teams.
March
Charity Team Building Programme
So, it’s almost a quarter of the way through the year and a good opportunity to take some time out for mental rejuvenation and inspiration. A charity team building programme will not only be fun and team-focused, it will enable you to do it for a cause. A part of this programme could be a refresher on the Belbin team profiling outcomes and how the learnings have been applied to date and can be applied in this charity team building day.
May
Charity Team Event
Keeping with the theme of ‘giving’ to a charity, you can do it through a fun and social event like the Biggest Morning Tea which supports the Cancer Council. Everyone loves food, the cooler months are closing in so an indoor event suits, and it reinforces your company’s focus on its corporate social responsibility.
July
Mid-year Staff Conference
Your team has blasted through the end of financial year which has no doubt been a very busy period for everyone. It’s time to re-set for the next 12 months with some strategic planning at your mid-year staff conference. But don’t make it all too serious. It will help keep everyone engaged if you mix up the programme with some fun team building activities and a social night out.
September
FISH! Training Workshop
The FISH! Philosophy is an awesome methodology for teams to instill a positive team culture. It really invigorates people and can provide a massive contribution to culture in the workplace. Your team will learn four simple practices that can be applied immediately for a very powerful effect.
December
Christmas Party
This is a traditional way of rewarding and thanking staff for their efforts through the year and to celebrate a very festive time. Why not do something a bit different though! Take advantage of the weather with a fun outdoor team building programme first, like Survivor or City Scramble, and then wind down with presentations and a nice dinner to round out the year.
That provides a calendar with six large activities scheduled through the year inclusive of everyone, however do not discount the benefits of smaller more regular activities like in-office competitions, sporting activities and other social occasions.
Danielle Lambert, State Manager, Corporate Challenge Events
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