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How to Overcome Half-Baked Pies – and Under-Cooked Culture

April 12, 2018 By The Content Cook Leave a comment


I am known around the office as something of a baker. I need only inspiration, boredom, or a humble request from my colleagues to bring in the goods to share with one and all… or the few that usually devour it by 9 AM.
Recently, a group baking event presented itself at work that I couldn’t pass up.
I prepped a week ahead of time, picking out my recipes. I did my grocery shopping Monday evening and spent a good amount of my Tuesday night baking. I even woke up early on Wednesday to make a second item. I was feeling pretty good when I got to work and was excited to see what else people brought in.
Once I got there, however, I found that no one else had baked a pie.
It was Pi Day – 3/14 (3.14159…) and because we don’t need more of a reason to celebrate, The Rhythm of Reman had it on the Culture Calendar in our most walked through hallway, a flier was made, and the date approached. I, and everyone else, see this calendar every day. Around here, we know The Big Impact of a Small Celebration. Whether it is a coworker’s birthday, work anniversary, or crazy national holiday that we are celebrating on a Friday Funday, it’s on that calendar. I was ready.
Pi Day offered an opportunity for everyone to engage. You could bake a pie in either the sweet or savory categories (I did both) or bring in a store-bought pie to compete. I knew I had a chance to win one. I can’t say there was no participation – everyone was more than happy to participate in the eating of the pie, but why did no one else contribute to the actual bake-off?
Sure, a couple of people brought in a store-bought pie and one REMAN U author who shall remain nameless brought in a baked pie her family passed on, but by default, I won. How can you have a bake-off without any other participants? To be clear, I wasn’t in it to win it. I did it to support my coworkers and the effort that was put in to come up with the idea.
Undoubtedly, culture matters, and I’m a part of a good one, but that doesn’t mean I don’t see struggles sometimes. Unless there is some type of award for participating, it feels hard to get everyone to be a part of something.
You have all the means to have a great culture and likely a lot of effort from a few members of your team that are highly engaged. But how can you work to bring more people into the culture fold?

  • Knowing isn’t enough. A highly visible culture calendar – and even flier announcement – is a good start, but sometimes people need more than that to feel like they can and should participate. Start by targeting members of your team (like me and pies) who you know will be engaged in a particular event to be leads and can guarantee they’ll bring something or show up for the fun.
  • Remind the why. I hardly need a reason to enjoy delicious food in our office, but when it’s something else, or even just a pie, reminding the impact of a slice of participation on morale or how a workplace is perceived is sometimes enough to rekindle a love for going the extra mile to pick something up from the store on your way to work.
  • Mix it up. Culture, much like baking, requires the correct amounts of many ingredients. While I know we have some of it absolutely right – the ideas, the messaging, the consistency – we need a little something else. And sometimes when you don’t have the perfect recipe for success, it involves going off[cook]-book. Experiment. A little of this, a little of that. You’ll get it eventually.

So, while Pi Day was a relative bust, and I was frustrated by the lack of participation, I’ll still make pies and I’ll still participate – and I’ll give it more time. Because a positive work culture, while certainly sweet, sometimes needs a bit more time to cook ‘til it’s just right.
 


The Content Cook knows how to bake a good pie, but to get an active work culture, she knows that sometimes it requires rewriting the recipe. What does your team do to get more slices to share?  Comment below or email Bridget directly. 

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