A great company culture attracts extraordinary talent; it's as simple as that. Throughout history, we've been stuck in a company culture that involves top-down structure with a motto that is so heavily drilled into our brains that there is no need to paint it on the walls of the office: "Unless you're in a management position, we don't need to know your thoughts." Like it or not, it's the truth. Working for different companies, from Cooperations to Mom-and-Pop shops to franchises, I've been able to see it so clearly. Most employers don't do it intentionally, but they are more driven by the bottom line than if the workplace is enjoyable for their team. And the one place I never saw this structure? The small, locally owned coffee shop that was run by a husband and his wife. That was the first time that I got to see a different company culture firsthand. It forever shifted my thinking about what success looks like for a business owner.
When Kat first approached me with the idea of starting Kaizen-Life, she told me that the driving question was, "how would I choose to run a business if could?" I loved that because I could see that as the driving factor behind everything she did, and still does! She chose to make Kaizen-Life a TEAL Organization and in the first part of joining the team, we all read "Reinventing Organizations" by Frederic Laloux to get a clear understanding of the business structure. It was then that I realized what made this job, as well as the one at the coffee shop, so different. The thing that set these two apart from my earlier employers was the intentional teamwork approach that was made clear from the first introduction.
Even in the minuscule tasks, they required greatness, teamwork, and leadership. When a company structure doesn't have those rigid roles that have all the power, it gives each employee the opportunity to take charge of their role and their workday in a way that is so freeing and innovative! Company culture can determine the success of your business, not just from an HR standpoint, but with the goal being that your business grows in talent and in numbers. How are you choosing to run your business?