INTHEBLACK June 2025 - Magazine - Page 52
WORK SMART
“If organisations truly want to leverage the power of microcultures,
they need to educate their managers on how to do it.”
COLIN D ELLIS, WORKPLACE CULTURE EXPERT
HOW CULTURE WORKS
Culture is created by the values and behaviour
a group either celebrates or rejects, says
Scott Smith, a leadership coach at Boldside HR.
“While we try to encourage [culture]
at an organisational level, the real work
is done at the team level.”
Workplace culture expert Colin D Ellis says
microcultures start to emerge once an
organisation reaches around 50 staff.
In these larger organisations, the company
culture is a combination of microcultures,
which operate best when they share a set
of common features.
“You need a spine or a backbone, and that’s
generally the purpose of an organisation:
who we are, what we do and our aspirations,”
Ellis explains.
“The organisation’s core values are
the emotional principles that connect people.
Different teams throughout the organisation
will need to act and behave in different ways,
but you want the values to be at the core
of everything that they do.”
Smith agrees, noting that it is up to leaders
to ensure these microcultures align with broader
organisational values.
“A marketing team might be creative
and innovative and encourage thinking outside
of the box, compared to a finance team that
is more analytical and attention-focused.
“Each team is naturally going to have
a different style and culture in line with
its function.”
CREATE HEALTHY MICROCULTURES
To create healthy microcultures, teams
require autonomy, resources and — critically —
capable managers.
However, Ellis notes that most managers
lack the training required to confidently
52 INTHEBLACK June 2025
build healthy cultures that align with
organisational values.
“If organisations truly want to leverage the
power of microcultures, they need to educate
their managers on how to do it,” he says.
“Once you’re taught how to build a great
team in line with the organisation’s values,
you can do it time after time — or else your
inability to do it will show itself very quickly.”
Engagement is an effective indicator
of a manager’s ability to build a healthy
culture, he says. “The better managers
generally have higher engagement scores.”
Ellis says senior leaders should praise
teams whose cultures align with
organisational values.
“Too often, we celebrate the success of
an individual and treat them as being special
when what we should be doing is holding
up teams as role models.”
VALUE-FOCUSED RECRUITMENT
Cultural differences between teams can create
issues for recruitment when expectations
don’t match reality.
According to a 2018 survey, of the 30 per cent
of new recruits who leave within the first 90
days of hiring, one-third blame company culture.
To reduce this costly attrition, Ellis says
interview questions should centre around values.
He says that requests such as, “Tell me about
a time when you demonstrated your integrity
or when you were communicative,” get to the
heart of who that person is as a human being.
“This way, organisations employ people
who believe in the same things they do,
but also have the skills and the personality
they need for the role.
“Generally, your skills will get you an
interview, but it’s how you demonstrate
the values that will get you the job.” ■
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an article about
how to create a
speak-up culture
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