Company culture is a hot topic for nearly every business. Everyone wants to create a productive, collaborative and inviting work environment where all employees follow shared values and work toward a common goal.
We asked a group of entrepreneurs to share how they encourage their teams to participate in building the company culture. Here are their top recommendations.
Get employee input on the hiring process
While a hiring manager should always have a final say over who joins the team, it could help to allow employees of all levels to participate in the hiring process. Ismael Wrixen, CEO of FE International recommends letting some of a candidate's future teammates sit in on an interview, as this can help you find people who will fit in well with your other employees.
"Our company has a real familiar feel, and team members often socialize outside or work." Wrixen explains. ''Considering how people will fit in the team once they are hired has always been an important consideration."
Create a space and environment that allows for breaks
Company culture-building can sometimes feel forced, says Jessica Gonzalez, CEO of InCharged. To make it more organic and natural, Gonzalez believes the best thing to do is to create the space and environment for it.
"Some companies get a Ping-Pong table,” she says. "It doesn't really matter the details, but you have given your employees permission to take breaks and blow off some steam with their coworkers. That's where culture and connection will be built."
Stop micromanaging
If you want your employees to build a great culture of their own, don't disturb the process, says Solomon Thimothy, president of OneIMS. While he monitors all processes on his team (including culture-building), he only gets involved when his staff needs him, rather than constantly micromanaging.
"Connect people with each other, define your expectations, set the pace and leave them alone,” Thimothy says.
Plan activities that reflect your shared values
According to Beth Doane, managing partner of Main & Rose, your internal brand should reflect your external one. She recommends bringing your team together around a shared set of values and then doing activities to strengthen that brand.
"As a social-good focused firm, we love doing activities that give back-hiking, volunteering, cleaning up the environment, Doane adds. "It's fun and it gets the whole team involved in our mission."
Ask for their ideas and suggestions
If you really want your employees to help build the company culture, all you have to do is ask them for their input. Chris Christoff, cofounder of Monster Insights, says he is open to suggestions from team members on how to perform more efficiently.
“Opening the invitation to new ideas fosters a positive company culture because it shows employees their voices are heard and their opinions matter because they do," Christoff says. “It creates a relaxing, trustworthy environment where everyone respects what each other has to say.”
Anyhow, it's important to remember that culture is not necessarily a top-down creation. Instead, a successful culture is developed and maintained by the workers who live it every single day.
Company culture | |
| Introduction | Companies hope to possess a productive, collaborative work environment where every employee |
entrepreneurs | It helps when staff get |
| The company had better create a space and environment that takes | |
| The employers should leave development room for employees after setting goals for them but come to their assistance only if | |
| Based on shared values, the company ought to do activities where your internal brand should | |
| It's a wise choice to | |
| Conclusion | Company culture is not necessarily a top-down creation. Instead, its |
相似题推荐
【推荐1】People are always denying their pain. They don't want to recognize it because they want to be sensed as okay, especially at this age. People are so concerned with being cool and being popular that they don't want to be the person with problems.
Talking about matters will help you deal with what is bringing you down. Figuring out what makes you feel painful can be very beneficial because a lot of the time we are so mixed up with our emotions that we need to sort them out with others' help.
| A．Your silence is not making you stronger |
| B．A calm heart allows you to think logically. |
| C．It's not always possible to just rely on ourselves. |
| D．You don't have to share everything in your heart. |
| E．They worry about you and they just want the best for you. |
| F．People like to talk to you and share with you their inner world. |
| G．However, what you choose to run away from will finally catch up with you. |
【推荐2】How to Discover Your Talent
Talent tends to refer to that inborn skill that everyone seems to be born with.
Revisit your childhood. A good way to figure out where your talents lie is to go back to your childhood.
Consider what it is you do when you lose track of time. One of the chief things you can do is focus on what you love to do so much that you have a tendency to forget everything else for a while.
Try new things. Especially if you’re not sure what your talents might be, you should get out and try new things. This way you’re more likely to hit on what it is that you’re really good at and that really makes you happy.
| A．Consider what you loved to do as a child |
| B．Ask others for better advice |
| C．You can use your talents in the service of kindness |
| D．Focus on the areas that you’re less talented in |
| E．Not all talents are going to be super obvious |
| F．Observe and enjoy the talents of other people |
| G．It’s true that having a talent can help you in life |
【推荐3】In recent years, science fictions are becoming increasingly popular. Science fiction writers using their magical imagination create imaginary worlds that attract a great number of readers especially teenagers. But how can they make it so believable?
The way things work in your imaginary worlds will be based on actual science. So you must be familiar with the scientific laws related to your creation. If you’re writing about humans living on a planet with zero gravity, then you need to know the effects of zero gravity on the human body.
Then the rules in your creation can be different from our daily life, so you have to figure out the exact rules of your imaginary worlds.
When you are writing, remember to make it feel real. You are creating a new real world for the readers.
| A．And you have to follow them. |
| B．You are inviting them to visit the new world. |
| C．You have to get rich imagination to create science fictions. |
| D．Make sure what you are writing is not against basic science. |
| E．Characters in the imaginary worlds always have super power. |
| F．Here you will find the answer if you are longing to create one. |
| G．Your preparation work also involves planning everything in great detail. |
【推荐1】Kodak’s decision to file for bankruptcy (破产) protection is a sad, though not unexpected, turning point for a leading American corporation that pioneered consumer photography and dominated the film market for decades, but ultimately failed to adapt to the digital revolution.
Although many attribute Kodak’s downfall to “complacency (自满),” that explanation doesn’t acknowledge the lengths to which the company went to reinvent itself. Decades ago, Kodak anticipated that digital photography would overtake film — and in fact, Kodak invented the first digital camera in 1975 — but in a fateful decision, the company chose to shelf its new discovery to focus on its traditional film business.
It wasn’t that Kodak was blind to the future, said Rebecca Henderson, a professor at Harvard Business School, but rather that it failed to execute on a strategy to confront it. By the time the company realized its mistake, it was too late.
Kodak is an example of a firm that was very much aware that they had to adapt, and spent a lot of money trying to do so, but ultimately failed. Large companies have a difficult time switching into new markets because there is a temptation to put existing assets into the new businesses.
Although Kodak anticipated the inevitable rise of digital photography, its corporate (企业的) culture was too rooted in the successes of the past for it to make the clean break necessary to fully embrace the future. They were a company stuck in time. Their history was so important to them. Now their history has become a liability.
Kodak’s downfall over the last several decades was dramatic. In 1976, the company commanded 90% of the market for photographic film and 85% of the market for cameras. But the 1980s brought new competition from Japanese film company Fuji Photo, which undermined Kodak by offering lower prices for film and photo supplies. Kodak’s decision not to pursue the role of official film for the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics was a major miscalculation. The bid went instead to Fuji, which exploited its sponsorship to win a permanent foothold in the marketplace.
1. What do we learn about Kodak?| A．It went bankrupt all of a sudden. |
| B．It is approaching its downfall. |
| C．It initiated the digital revolution in the film industry. |
| D．It is playing a dominant role in the film market. |
| A．To show its early attempt to reinvent itself. |
| B．To show its effort to overcome complacency. |
| C．To show its quick adaptation to the digital revolution. |
| D．To show its will to compete with Japan’s Fuji photo. |
| A．They find it costly to give up their existing assets. |
| B．They tend to be slow in confronting new challenges. |
| C．They are unwilling to invest in new technology. |
| D．They are deeply stuck in their glorious past. |
| A．A burden. |
| B．A mirror. |
| C．A joke. |
| D．A challenge. |
| A．Its blind faith in traditional photography. |
| B．Its failure to see Fuji photo’s emergence. |
| C．Its refusal to sponsor the 1984 Olympics. |
| D．Its overconfidence in its corporate culture. |
Nike
In the Greek myth, Nike is the goddess of victory and the source of inspiration for soldiers. This logo represents the wing in the famous statue of the Greek goddess. Nike’s logo was designed by Carolyn Davidson in 1971 for $35, and was registered as a trademark in 1995.
McDonald’s
The logo was designed in 1962 by Jim Schindler to resemble the archshaped(拱形的) signs on the side of the company’s then walk-up hamburger stand. Later on, the two golden arches were combined together to form the M. The McDonald’s name was added to the logo in 1968.
Apple
There are different stories behind Apple’s logo. The first logo was a reference to the religious story of Adam and Eve, in which the apple represented the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge. One year later, the second logo was designed in 1977 by Steve Jobs and Ronald Wayne, and it described Sir Isaac Newton sitting under an apple tree. This logo didn’t stay long. One year later it was replaced almost immediately by graphic designer Rob Janoff’s “rainbow apple”, a rainbow-colored silhouette(轮廓) of an apple with a bite taken out of it. And then the rainbow-colored apple was replaced by the one-colored logo in 1998. It has not been changed so far.
Mercedes Benz
The Mercedes Benz logo, which was originally created by Gottlieb Daimler in 1909, consists of a simple description of a three-pointed star that represents its rule of the land, the sea and the air. The company was founded by Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach. Mercedes is the name of Maybach’s elder daughter, while Benz came as a result of a combination with Benz, Cie and DMG in 1926.
Adidas
The Adidas logo, which was created by the founder of the company Adi Dassler, represents mountains, pointing towards the challenges that are seen ahead and goals that can be achieved. The logo was used for the first time in 1967.
1. What does the author think of the stories of the great logos?
| A．They are boring. | B．They are out of date. |
| C．They are attractive. | D．They are practical. |
| A．The goddess of victory. |
| B．The source of inspiration for soldiers. |
| C．The statue of the Greek goddess. |
| D．The wing of the Greek goddess. |
| A．the religious story of Adam and Eve |
| B．a bitten apple with only one color |
| C．Newton’s sitting under an apple tree |
| D．the rainbow-colored bitten apple |
| A．Nike’s logo | B．Apple’s logo |
| C．The Mercedes logo | D．The Adidas logo |
| A．Mercedes Benz –McDonald’s – Nike – Apple. |
| B．Nike – McDonald’s – Apple – Mercedes Benz. |
| C．McDonald’s – Apple – Nike – Mercedes Benz. |
| D．Nike – Mercedes Benz – McDonald’s – Apple. |
【推荐3】Jose Adolfo is a banker from Peru. He encourages children to save money and offers his customers cash for recycling plastic wastes. But the remarkable thing is that he is still a child himself.
By the age of 7, he decided to create a bank for children. He was motivated by seeing his classmates skipping lunch because they had spent the little money they had on sweets or football cards. What drove him even more was the poverty he saw among children.
With the support of a local company, the 14-year-old founded the Bartselana student bank which now has more than 2,000 customers between the ages of 10 and 18. Children can withdraw (提取) money from several cashpoints of the bank. They can also monitor their balances online. What makes it different from traditional banks is that it sets savings goals for children. They have to reach those goals in order to withdraw their money.
The student bank really took off when he came up with the “Recycle Plan”, a new way for the children to earn money by collecting recyclable plastic or paper waste. Students can bring recyclable plastic bottles, used school books and old newspapers to the schools and put them into the collecting boxes. The recycling is weighed and the money goes to their bank accounts.
The bank recycles 4.4 tons of material a month and has collecting boxes in seven schools in Arequipa. More are on a waiting list. Increasingly the model is in demand in the rest of Peru and abroad.
His efforts have been noticed by Peru’s environment ministry. “He’s making an amazing change in financial (理财的) education that perhaps many adults could not come up with,” said the Peru’s environment minister, Lucia Ruiz. “He’s achieving a double goal because he’s not just designing a financial opportunity for children and teenagers but also helping to reduce waste in the country.”
1. Why did Jose create a bank for children?| A．To help poor children. | B．To provide free lunch. |
| C．To offer outdoor activities. | D．To improve school condition. |
| A．It makes saving goals. | B．It monitors the balance. |
| C．It has several cashpoints. | D．It serves customers online. |
| A．using less plastic bottles | B．using old school books |
| C．collecting plastic wastes | D．cleaning collecting boxes |
| A．It’s typical. | B．It’s successful. |
| C．It’s risky. | D．It’s well-organized . |
| A．He gave money to poor children. |
| B．He taught children how to spend money. |
| C．He helped adults receive financial education. |
| D．He contributed to financial education and recycling. |
