It always comes down to culture

I had the great opportunity to speak yesterday at the TAG Summit yesterday on the topic of workforce improvement. We took the attendees (around 1,500 tech leaders) through a brainstorming process to identify ideas in the following areas: ACQUIRE, INSPIRE, DEVELOP, and RETAIN.

The group uncovered some really great insights around each of those areas. But what was interesting was how much ‘culture’ came up in each one. For example:

• When you’re trying to recruit new team members, your culture is one of the main things that will entice someone to join. 
• Once a team member has joined, its your culture that will inspire them to do their best.
• As they develop into a future leader at your company, they’ll become ambassadors for your company’s culture and will mentor new team members.
• And when it comes to retaining team members, the culture of the organization will have as big an impact as anything.

All of this weighs into the reasons why Dragon Army we puts culture (and our Purpose) front and center. We don’t just talk about culture, we live it. Too many companies think that culture is something you write up once, stick on a wall, and put a big check by it.

Culture must be authentic and lived every day. Every. Day.