Why Culture Matters: 5 Insider Insights for Small Businesses

This is us: A team of ten architects and designers of six nationalities united by a shared mission — to create positive social and environmental impact through design — a mission that led us on a journey to become the UK’s first B Corporation architecture studio.

Being small is a big part of our culture. In fact, we’re part of the 97% of architecture and engineering firms in the UK that have less than ten staff, who collectively employ three-quarters of the workforce. These illuminating stats show how those with the least in the way of HR resources ultimately determine employees’ experiences within the industry. Since day one we’ve believed we have a responsibility to look after our people and set a high bar in terms of culture.

For most resource-strapped leaders however, a consciously-crafted culture can feel like a nice-to-have, rather than an essential part of the business model. This is a dangerous misconception, and a missed opportunity to improve the health of your organisation.

Why small businesses should care about culture

Evidence shows that good culture is good for business. A survey of more than 5,000 adults across the US, UK, France and Germany revealed that over half (56%) valued company culture over salary when it came to job satisfaction (Glassdoor, 2019), while nearly two in three (65%) employees cited poor company culture as one of the main reasons for remaining their job.

More critically, as we emerge from the pandemic, we’ve also seen how positive company cultures build resilience, with the 2021 Global Culture Report showing how companies with ‘thriving cultures’ were significantly less impacted by the pandemic than others.

These figures make a clear case for leaders to consider the essential role culture can play — but how do you start building a positive culture as a small business and what things should you consider?

1. First, establish a baseline of good management and support for employees.

Despite the clear benefits of a thriving culture, there are still some prevalent issues in our industry that negatively impact culture and wellbeing. Root causes of overworking and stress such as poor fee management, unethical working practices and underpayment of staff can’t be patched over with away-days or team picnics.

Most designers who set up their own studios haven’t undergone any business, marketing, or management training. Be aware of your weakness areas as a leader and reach out for help to improve. The first step to a healthy culture is a healthy business model — so make sure you’re doing the basics well.

2. Creativity and attention are more important than a big budget.

Culture-building doesn’t have to be expensive. Something as simple as fifteen minutes kept free for a virtual team coffee can make a big difference to the sense of connectedness when working remotely. Our team does this daily, alongside a more formal fortnightly ‘culture check-in’ to reflect and evaluate on the atmosphere and wellbeing of the studio.

Other simple practices, such as showing gratitude and value, don’t have to involve huge costs. While we have a profit share mechanism to reward our collective success, it’s often the more creative, thoughtful awards, custom-made prizes, and commemorative events that have left the biggest impact. A weekly shout-out from each team member about someone in the practice sets a positive intention for the week, and makes sure we also celebrate the small achievements that often go unnoticed.

3. Make culture building a collective act.

Over time, we’ve learnt that culture-building works best as a collective act. For ideas and new behaviours to take root, they need to be owned by everyone.

To help instigate this culture we established eight ‘Rep Roles’, each relating to a different aspect of our business practices, assigned to empower everyone to be involved across all aspects of the studio’s inner workings. Roles such as the Personal Trainer (leading a programme of CPDs, inspiration and upskilling), the Green Guru (sustainability research and practices), or the Philanthropist (managing our outreach and donations), allow team members to lead on different initiatives and act as a touchpoint for all staff to discuss key issues beyond their project work.

With mechanisms like this in place, it becomes a collective effort to progress the studio’s culture and practices, not one that’s constrained by the limited time leadership can put into it.

4. Make your core values visible.

As a values-led organisation, we’ve always believed in the power a clearly defined, shared set of values can bring in fostering effective collaboration within teams. Something especially important when bringing together people with a diverse range of different backgrounds, skills, and viewpoints.

But values are only meaningful if they are lived-by, and present. So we try to make them visible across multiple touchpoints: in job adverts; onboarding training; reviews; and annual, team-nominated awards.

Our values are Empathy, Tenacity, Questioning and Spark, the latter being suggested by a team member last year, to capture the studio’s celebration of creative exploration through play.

5. Success is in the journey, not the destination.

Running a small business can sometimes feel like a game of snakes and ladders. It’s easy to get disappointed by a set-back or frustrated by a mis-step if you’re always looking ahead. Focusing on culture, by contrast, means paying attention to the here and now. It’s innately optimistic — paying attention to the act of transformation, and the journey.

Experience has taught us that time and care put into consciously crafting culture pays back dividends; manifesting itself as greater trust, respect, collaboration and resilience within teams. We believe it’s well worth the investment — whatever the size of your business.

—

Written by Subani Gurung, Chris Kennedy and Tom Woods, Nascent

Tom and I recently spoke on an industry panel at the London Festival of Architecture about why small business leaders need to care about culture. The talk was based upon five key lessons learnt during seven years as a small practice, which we wanted to reshare with our audience here. — Chris Kennedy

Nascent is our sister company which we started to help forward-thinking organisations revolutionise critical social infrastructure by designing spaces from the user perspective.

Originally published at https://www.wearenascent.co.uk on July 21, 2021.