Creating a winning culture at work

Creating a winning culture at work

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Cycling Team Ineos got off to a great start last weekend by winning the Tour de Yorkshire overall. There were also no shortage of headlines about the newly formed team’s billionaire backer, Jim Ratcliffe. If Team Ineos is to replicate the success of its previous embodiment as Team Sky, Ratcliffe’s financial backing will undoubtedly have a part to play. However, something less tangible but equally important to performance will also need to be in place: the right culture.

Much was made of Team Sky’s winning behaviours culture, which saw it secure six Tour de France wins in seven years. The team even went as far to appoint a “head of winning behaviours” in the shape of Fran Millar and developed it into an app. Key to this approach was aligning everyone behind the mission with the right behaviours and attitudes.

In the world of business, culture has moved up the agenda, assisted by work of the Financial Reporting Council and its 2018 UK Corporate Governance Code. The code calls on companies to establish “a corporate culture that is aligned with the company purpose, business strategy, promotes integrity and values diversity”.

Inside many organisations, there is still a long way to go though. But aligning an entire workforce behind a common purpose is becoming widely recognised as one of the best ways to deliver on goals and objectives and improve performance. Conversely, a poor company culture is one of the quickest ways to disengage employees, demotivate the workforce and have a detrimental effect on productivity and performance.

Our unique advanced consulting methodology (AI-C) provides the opportunity for optimising alignment across whole organisations which significantly increases the probability of coordinated action

In the experience of Rialto Consultancy, get the culture right and so many other things will fall into place. Individuals who feel more aligned with an organisation and its mission are more likely to release discretionary effort and this, in turn, will lead to improved performance and increased productivity.

Rialto has a track record of helping organisations across a range of sectors effect culture change/development programmes. Its approach is to delve into the psyche of an organisation and undertake a root and branch analysis of how it works at all levels. Additionally, using our unique advanced consulting methodology (AI-C) provides the opportunity for optimising alignment across whole organisations which significantly increases the probability of coordinated action. 

Culture development programmes require time and high-levels of commitment and buy-in from the top tier. Leaders must model the right behaviours and ensure that managers build them into their performance management programmes so their importance is recognised across the organisation.

Rialto believes a healthy corporate culture is a fundamental requirement for a modern-thinking business that wants to succeed in an increasingly competitive environment. And it is increasingly a source of long-term value. Get the culture right and so many other positives will follow: employees will be engaged and aligned with the corporate mission; it will be easier to implement strategies; and the external brand will be enhanced.

Put simply, to improve company culture is to directly treat the cause of many workplace problems rather than the symptoms and we all know from other walks of life that the benefits of this are far greater and more long-lasting.