Considering the technology and change revolution, research is finding that companies need to empower their employees with not only a team dynamic but with a culture that will ignite their creativity.
After over a decade working with organizations and entrepreneurs as a coach who specializes in culture development and teams, it became apparent that many of them did not have the strategies to create a culture that could inspire the best out of its people — one that would continually evolve to master ideas, challenges, customer excellence and communication. The concept of “building trust” was a common topic, yet not many companies knew how to do it beyond surface activities.
In essence, they needed to build what I call a creative-evolutionary culture (CEC).
I find this framework of a creative-evolutionary culture transforms the potential of the organization, benefitting both the team within and the customers they serve. I've defined a CEC as a culture that radiates transparency, trust for risk-taking and ideas and a continual-growth mindset pattern. CE cultures set the stage for staying relevant, bringing out the best in your team and building stronger customer relationships. A CEC also allows teams to build trust and growth patterns, gain inspiration from each other, expand their creativity, take risks and learn how to transform expectations around what is possible.
What Does A Creative-Evolutionary Culture Look Like?
When you walk into a room with a team that has a CEC, you will notice a difference. Four key elements that differentiate this culture from a dysfunctional group or team are curiosity-based communication, agreement-setting between members, a driven desire to continually think and act outside the box and a sense of deep respect and trust for each person on the team. It’s an optimal culture based in co-learning, not internal competition. This allows all energy to go toward creative brilliance and solution-finding instead of gossip, "in" and "out" groups and internal mistrust. It is powerful and empowering to each team member.
How Can Your Company Develop A CEC?
First, explore the concept of a growth mindset to find the underpinnings that can be integrated into your culture. In her book Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, Dr. Carol S. Dweck demonstrates the power of the growth mindset in success, innovation and achievement. According to Dweck, growth mindset cultures have exceptional impacts.
• Employees were 34% likelier to feel a sense of ownership of and commitment to their organization.
• Employees were 65% likelier to say that their organization supports risk-taking.
• Employees were 47% likelier to say that their colleagues are trustworthy.
Second, build a foundation for the creative-evolutionary framework. This starts with creating team trainings and conversations around what the ideal culture would need to look like to have the four elements of a CEC:
1. Curiosity-Based Communication: Members learn what questions and investigative language to use and how to inspire each other to higher levels instead of relying on common language practices.
2. Agreement-Setting Between Members: Responsibility, shared accountability, initiative and facing change are discussed and shared.
3. Driven Desire To Think Outside The Box: Work with the team to move through challenges with curiosity. When developing new solutions or ideas, have them explore three or more possibilities instead of landing on two.
4. Deep, Shared Respect And Trust: Spend time with the team to learn each person’s strengths and differences.
Third, incorporate resources and energy toward moving the culture or team toward mastering these four areas of a creative-evolutionary culture. This means deliberately spending time biweekly to encourage the team to learn something new together, to do an “ecology check” with regard to how they are doing in the four areas and clearly defining one action they will take in the next two weeks to attain higher performance. Create 75- to 90-minute CEC sessions in which the team incorporates new levels of learning around performance to continue the momentum of becoming a more creative, resilient and trusting organization.
With so many economic variables at play in today's marketplace, it is important that companies stay relevant and mobile to navigate changes instead of reacting to them. This does mean investing in your people in new ways to raise the overall leadership consciousness of the team and culture. By working on the four elements of a creative-evolutionary culture, organizations can build new levels of trust, productivity and synergy.
