How would you define Wolverine’s culture? Please take a moment right now and try to answer this in a few words. This simple question seems harder for me to answer than it should be.
We do have a strong culture here at Wolverine. Examples I see include your strong desire to serve our members, your hard work, and how you solve complicated problems in ways that “make it look easy.” What about other important elements like safety, quality of life, feeling appreciated, and work satisfaction? Do you feel Wolverine has culture elements that we can improve on? If so, which ones? How do we fix them?
Think of culture as the characteristic defining a group of people – their habits, behaviors, and language. Culture forms the basis of shared values that shape behavioral norms. Culture unites. People within a culture identify with each other. Culture shapes. New entrants to a culture (like new employees) adapt to behaviors to within the cultural system. Culture guides. Think of it like guideposts for acceptable, allowable and desirable behaviors, instead of lists of rules and policies.
The Culture Team created an action plan which they will kick off over the next few weeks. They have a challenging set of goals for 2017:
- Conduct a survey to measure the current Culture
- Define what Wolverine’s Culture should be
- Develop a Wolverine Culture Book
- Communicate survey results and develop specific action steps to align the current Culture with the ideal
- Define best practices for Wolverine supervisors and managers
If we can define our culture, we can teach it. If we can teach it, then our culture can last. Everything we do gets touched by our culture, and our culture can shape everything we do. The work of the Culture Team represents one of the most important things we’ve ever undertaken. They will plow a lot of new ground and your engagement will prove vital to their work, so get involved!
As a relatively new face to Wolverine, I find the culture to be refreshing. We work at an organization where your opinion matters at every different level of decision making. We are grouped into teams/departments and no one team or department has a more important job than the other. Everybody here makes a significant impact to Wolverine and our members daily. There is an appreciation and respect for the different jobs that each of us do. Big or small.
We are encouraged to WANT to be more than what we currently are and grow with Wolverine in a way that best fits us personally, as well as Wolverine and our members. That says a lot for the culture that already exists here.
I think it’s awesome that we now have a team dedicated to improving and maintaining the positive culture! I know it will get even better and that’s exciting for all of us who are blessed enough to work here.
Lastly, we work hard, but we have fun! Whether it be the random days someone starts popping popcorn in the kitchen, s’mores on the patio, walks on the walking trail, breaks for exercise, games on the culture board or our holiday celebrations…we have fun. All of those things combined, make Wolverine a really enjoyable place to work!