This is an archived blog from when I ran Conscious Public Relations Inc. from 2008-2018. Excuse the potential outdated-ness!
Corporate culture, perception, and going further
In the recent issue of The Art of Magazine, Bryan de Lottinville of Benevity writes about how [corporate] “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” He says:
“…companies that empower employee choice in workplace giving see five times more participation than those that limit contributions to a few causes or annual campaigns.
More than ever, people are looking for meaning in their work – but they are less likely to find that meaning in a corporate strategy or vision document. They want to see commitments to positive change in action, and have opportunities to be co-creators of that change.” (Volume 14, page 12)
Two years ago I had the honour of sitting in a workshop on corporate culture at SVI Hollyhock by Aki at Hootsuite and Karen at EcoTrust. Aki talked about Netflix’s enviable Manifesto and how her job was to plan parties that would cater to all the different personalities of the employees working at Hootsuite. It’s because of her that I worked on our Cultural Manifesto and it drives the culture I am trying to create here, even as we work virtually.
Photo: cbc.ca
I’m realizing that the vision has gotten us pretty far, but that we could take the extra step – on which Lottinville elaborates – in having our team be co-creators of the campaigns that we support on a pro-bono basis annually. And this is something I’d love to implement more, along with more community outreach as part of our team building process.
Here are some local and international companies that boast an attractive corporate culture – I’m not saying that we should all emulate them as each company and culture is different, but it’s worth doing some digging for ideas.
