When you think of Company Culture you may not immediately consider the impact it has on Project Management, but with any shared projects or tasks, company culture is essentially the glue that binds it all.

You can choose a certain project methodology, and you can set up processes and develop techniques, but it means nothing if you can’t get buy-in from your team. Managing a project requires communication and the passing of knowledge, but also an understanding of priorities and deadlines and the impact work has on other tasks as well as the project as a whole.

Here company culture plays a huge role because it requires the working team to respect one another, understand and share the goal, and work together. If you have just one person acting outside of the group, it might still be manageable with critical mass still using the same processes and techniques and working in unison, but if this multiplies and you have several people all doing their own thing, it makes managing the project very difficult.

Company culture is a very unique concept for each organisation, often developed over time by key stakeholders but maintained and kept alive day-to-day by the collective workforce. Social dynamics often work on critical mass, if most people do and act a certain way, it makes it more alienating and ‘against the grain’ to do another thing or move in a different direction. Of course, freedom, expression, opinion, flexibility, and individuality are important, but as social beings, shared goals and ethos are what bind the collective. We can all be individuals but we all share something, and that shared something makes us a collective too.

Here are some company cultures that are useful mantras for Project Management and working as a team.

There are no stupid ideas or questions.

Innovation can happen anywhere and from anyone. Not only can some people feel shy or fear rejection of an idea, but asking questions is often what imbues us with knowledge. Fear of not knowing something and how that may look, or fear of damaging your reputation, often means people will not speak up. A culture that embraces all input and a thirst to understand more, is far more innovative and collectively smart than a company whose culture is the opposite and shames questions or ideas.

Collective Intelligence.

Even managers can find themselves in new situations, or new developments can lead to new opportunities, and if there is a lack of expertise from an integral person or leader, a team can plug a gap by using the intelligence of the collective. What is the opinion of the team and together what is a logical course of action? Not only can sharing the decision lead to a more successful outcome but it increases buy-in and demonstrates leading by example. If a manager can ask for help and not feel judged and vulnerable, then so too can any employee.

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Lead with respect, not fear.

Yes techniques, processes, and methodologies are here to help us, but not everyone will agree with a decision. Organisations that rule with an iron fist, often find that people don’t try to adopt it fully, hold secret resentment, and often look to sabotage that which they do not like or want to do. Leading with respect is different. It lends to more open mentalities, of trying it in a way that is not your own or doing something you may not like for the collective good. Leading with respect opens doors and minds. Of course, respect also invites feedback and discussion which should be considered. Giving harsh repercussions often puts people outside and alienates them, people will often hide errors and lack of adoption as a result.

Success is shared.

We often crave positive feedback and reinforcement. A little competition is good, but it’s also important to empower the team, not the individual. Projects are made up of small tasks, but a positive outcome or win can be as much for the collective as it is for the individual. A new person is a resource shared. The last task helped you reach the next stage. It’s often important to frame progress as a collective success, if you congratulate a single person on a task that was supported by many, you often overlook the other work done and it makes people feel like their contribution is not recognised. Framing successes as collective successes empowers everyone to support the goal because they share the success. You may not be the one to cross the finish line, but the team wins.

Growth, but not at any cost.

This is a particularly strong one for Huddo, in that it’s not a case of profit over people. Chasing profit often results in poor customer service. Pushing a project through at the cost of staff can often lead to people feeling disenfranchised, perhaps even feeling expendable and leaving the company. Growth is important but if you put it above people, you often find the cost of growth is too high. Often you find happier people work better and achieve better results. If you are happy your focus is on your work and how that work makes you happy. If you are unhappy a lot of time and energy is spent going over what makes you unhappy, and trying to recover from that unhappiness. So, aim high, but prioritise people over profits and you will have more sustainable growth and happy staff and customers.

Think fast. Fail fast.

Often we do not know if what we are doing is right. Is this the right direction or course of action to take? We may make the best decision we can, but professional life is all about decisions and weighing risks. An expert is essentially someone who has made all the mistakes but learned from them. This is why people look for experience because they can avoid some of the errors made in the past and not repeat them in new situations. Mistakes are not a sign of failure, the true sign of failure is not learning how to get better and making the same mistakes over and over again. We do not need to celebrate and idolise mistakes, but we should not demonise them either. What we should celebrate is learning. A mantra of trying, learning, and correcting, quickly. Often the fastest way to success is iteration at speed.

Company Cultured