CSOM – Culture Is What People Experience
I came home from my cruise vacation with the usual souvenirs: a few photos, a suitcase that somehow weighed more on the return trip, and the inevitable wish that I had just one more day away. But what stayed with me most wasn’t the destination. It was the people.
Anyone who has been on a cruise knows the operation is remarkable. Thousands of employees from around the world work long hours, spend months away from home and interacting with guests from morning until night.
And almost without fail, everyone had a smile on their face. From the person who checked our passports and documents at embarkation, the room steward who has at least 60 guests to take care of, the bartender, the maintenance crew and the dining room wait staff.
Every interaction carried the same message: We’re glad you’re here, and we want you to have a great experience. That kind of consistency doesn’t happen because someone handed employees a script. It happens because culture has become part of how people think about their work.
Too often, organizations mistake culture for perks. They point to casual Fridays, holiday parties, flexible schedules or a beautifully written mission statement hanging on the wall. Those things can certainly contribute to a positive workplace, but they are not culture.
Adrian and I talk about culture on this week’s episode of Copper State of Mind.
Culture is revealed in the hundreds of small decisions employees make every day. It’s how they greet a customer. It’s whether they help a colleague without being asked. It’s how they respond when something goes wrong. The moments that seem ordinary are often the moments that define an organization.
Not let’s be real, culture doesn’t eliminate mistakes or guarantee every interaction will be perfect. We certainly experienced a few minor hiccups during our trip. Not unlike every business, but even with a misstep, the handling of the situation made all the difference.
Look, no one and no experience is perfect. But we can be very forgiving of a less-than-perfect situation when it is handled with a sense of care and professionalism. When we trust that the person we are dealing with is genuinely concerned with the outcome of the interaction.
Strong cultures create trust, and trust gives people grace when things don’t go exactly as planned.
Culture isn’t built during an annual retreat or introduced in a company-wide memo. It is built conversation by conversation, interaction by interaction, and example by example. Employees pay far more attention to what leaders consistently do than to what they occasionally say. When leaders demonstrate respect, curiosity, accountability and genuine care for people, those behaviors become contagious. Before long, they become part of the organization’s identity.
As communicators, we often remind clients that every interaction shapes their reputation. The same is true inside our own organizations. Every employee is a brand ambassador. Every conversation can either strengthen or weaken the culture you’re trying to create.
Long after customers forget the details of a transaction, they’ll remember how you made them feel. That’s the kind of culture worth investing in, because it isn’t just experienced by customers. It’s experienced by the people who come to work every day, and that’s where lasting success begins.
Now on to the next cruise vacation.
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