Table of Contents

Introduction 1

About This Book 1

Foolish Assumptions 2

Icons Used in This Book 3

Beyond the Book 3

Where to Go from Here 3

Part 1: Getting Started with Company Culture 5 Chapter 1: Understanding Company Culture 7

Defining Company Culture 8

Approaching Culture as Your Organization's Operating System 9

The Best Company Cultures: Different but Essentially the Same 12

Steering Clear of the Perks Pitfalls 13

Recognizing the Symptoms of an At-risk Culture 14

Chapter 2: Reaping the Benefits of a Healthy Culture 17

Improving Key Business Metrics with Culture 18

Tallying the Cost of Bad Culture 24

Chapter 3: Benchmarking Company Culture 29

Creating and Conducting Your Culture Survey 30

Tracking Culture in Other Ways 41

Part 2: Starting with Yourself 49 Chapter 4: Managing Yourself 51

Getting Yourself on Board 51

People Do Better When You Do Better 53

Becoming Mindful 54

Getting Started with Self-Management 59

Checking Your Beliefs 72

Managing Your Time 78

Chapter 5: Honing Your Leadership Skills 83

Reinventing Leadership for the Modern Workplace 84

Knowing What Great Leaders Do 85

Serving Your People First 87

Managing for Success 88

Coaching for Performance 90

Uncovering the Seven Sins of Toxic Leadership 92

Part 3: Designing Your Culture for Maximum Impact 95 Chapter 6: Maximizing Your Impact with Mission and Vision 97

Clarifying the Difference between Mission and Vision 98

Understanding the Real Purpose of an Organizational Mission 98

Crafting a Clear and Inspirational Mission Statement 101

Bringing Your Mission to Life 107

Looking into Your Future Vision 109

Drafting Your Organizational Vision 110

Sharing Your Vision 113

Living Your Vision 114

Chapter 7: Setting Your House Rules: Values and Behaviors at Work 115

Getting to the Truth about Company Values 116

Finding the Value in Values 117

Defining Your Organizational Values 120

Aligning Values with Desired Behavior 123

Drafting Your Values and Behavior Statement 126

Launching Your Values and Behavior Blueprint 129

Making Your Values Statement Come to Life 130

Chapter 8: Leveraging Your Culture for Inbound Recruiting 133

Understanding Inbound Marketing 134

Updating the Help Wanted Sign 135

Creating Engaging Content 139

Managing Your Employer Brand 145

Giving Your Culture a Home Page 146

Watching Your Competition 150

Employing the Entire Company as Recruiter 151

Curating a Strong Alumni Referral Network 152

Chapter 9: Hiring to Boost Culture 153

Hiring to Improve Culture 154

Fixing the Recruiting Cycle 155

Defining Your Ideal Candidate 156

Writing a Better Job Description 160

Crafting the Candidate Experience 162

Evaluating the Interview Process 163

Making the Offer 169

Avoiding the Most Common Interviewing Mistakes 171

My Favorite Piece of Advice for Hiring 174

Chapter 10: Onboarding New Hires 175

Using Onboarding to Set the Stage 176

Crafting a Vision for Your New Hire Experience 178

Evaluating Your Current Process 180

Combining Vision and Current Practices for Onboarding Success 182

Designing the Buddy System 187

Starting a Culture of Feedback Early 190

Using New Hires to Recruit More Talent 191

Chapter 11: Better Training to Improve Culture 193

Impacting Your Culture 193

Training Is Hard 196

Understanding the Basics of Training 197

Learning about Learning 201

Making Training Successful 202

Creating Better Training Programs 205

Recognizing When It's Time to Upgrade 211

Part 4: Managing Your Culture 213 Chapter 12: Improving Communications 215

Communication Is the Cornerstone of Culture 216

Addressing the Main Issue with Communication 217

Improving Communication 218

Enhancing Staff Meetings 221

Helping Your Team Connect 227

Avoiding Common Communication Pitfalls 230

Chapter 13: Improvising Your Way to a Better Culture 233

Defining Improv 233

Living in a VUCA World 234

Applying Improv to Business 236

Chapter 14: Creating a Feedback-Rich Culture 243

Shifting Culture Using Feedback 243

Understanding the Four Styles of Feedback 245

Crafting a Feedback-Rich Culture 248

Chapter 15: Creating a Culture Pocket in the Org Chart 253

What's a Culture Pocket? 254

Seeing How a Culture Pocket Makes Your Team Shine 255

Shifts, Teams, Locations, and Departments: How to Craft Culture at Any Level 256

Ensuring a Feedback Culture on Your Team 260

Making Time for Your Team to Get Together 261

Chapter 16: Producing an Inclusive and Diverse Place to Work 263

Shifting Culture: Understanding How Diversity and Inclusivity Work Together 264

Appreciating Why Diversity Matters 264

Becoming Aware of the Unaware 266

Changing Behavior Design to Create More Unifying Systems 268

Becoming More Transparent 272

Creating a More Inclusive Culture 274

Making More Inclusive Decisions 278

Part 5: Disrupting Performance Management 281 Chapter 17: Reviewing the Performance Review 283

Hating the Performance Review 284

Loving the Performance Review 287

Recognizing the Goals of an Effective Performance Review System 289

Curating a Better Review Process 291

Increasing Transparency in the Performance Improvement Process 300

Chapter 18: Perfecting the One-on-One for Culture Connections 303

Getting Started with One-on-Ones 304

Envisioning the Ultimate One-on-One for the Employee 306

Asking Better Questions 309

Debugging Your One-on-Ones 312

Supercharging Your One-on-One Platform 315

Chapter 19: Setting Clear Objectives to Boost a Productive Culture 317

Understanding the Link between Objectives and Culture 318

Figuring Out Why Things Don't Get Done 321

Setting Up the Scoreboard 322

Using Objectives and Key Results to Drive Culture 324

Avoiding the Common Mistakes of Organizational Goal Setting 327

Chapter 20: Using Recognition to Reinforce Company Culture 331

Benefiting from Recognition 332

Understanding Real Recognition 332

Creating a Culture of Appreciation 333

Recognizing Milestones 338

Part 6: The Part of Tens 341 Chapter 21: Ten Free Ways to Boost Your Culture 343

Starting a Book Club 343

Adopting a Freaky Friday Day 345

Bringing the Services to Them 346

Codifying Your Culture 346

Teaching What You Know 347

Walking and Talking 347

Celebrating Failure 348

Applauding Diverse Leaders 349

Telling Stories Together 349

Making the Suggestion Box Clear 350

Chapter 22: Ten Ways That Job Applicants Can Read Company Culture 351

Researching Online 353

Recruiting Responses 354

Marking First Impressions 355

Noting Interview Questions 356

Finding the Right Time and Place 356

Investigating the Manager Relationship 357

Talking to Other Employees 357

Learning about Career Growth 358

Talking about Teamwork 358

Uncovering Potential Challenges 359

Index 361

About the Author

Mike Ganino is retained worldwide as a keynote speaker, trainer, and consultant, helping companies create cultures that engage teams, thrill customers, and drive bottom lines. A former hospitality and tech industry executive, Mike has also helped develop thriving cultures in industries as diverse as real estate, manufacturing, hotel and restaurant, travel, and banking.