3 Culture Building Tips For Your Family and Business

Culture is a thousand things, a thousand times. It's living the core values when you hire; when you write an email; when you are working on a project; when you are walking in the hall.

- Brian Chesky

When we are no longer able to change a situation - we are challenged to change ourselves.

- Viktor E. Frankl

You can have all the right strategies in the world; if you don't have the right culture, you're dead.

- Patrick Whitesell

My wife and I are prioritizing intentional parenting this year.

I have noticed how closely our actions resembled running a company.

However, I only realized its similarity in outcomes and effectiveness recently.

Here’s what we are doing and the gains so far:

We started the year:

1. Creating our family's vision, mission and values, and getting the kids on board with them.

2. Creating a monthly family activity schedule.

3. having bi-weekly family meetings

At first, it seemed excessive, and the kids found our talk tiresome.

They are now growing to appreciate the family values.

We try not to impose our desires or demand obedience anymore.

Instead, we link it to our family values so they understand why it's necessary to do their chores or acknowledge their responsibility lapses.

If we ask, what do you think you should have done differently and why? They can explain in line with our family vision and values.

In the same way in companies, staff are more effective when they understand the why and connect with the shared vision.

We used to have impromptu family time, grabbing dinner or watching a movie together.

Our schedule now includes designated times for family games, puzzles, focus activities, and movie nights.

Our kids have a blast when they get to spend more time with us.

It has no negative impact on our work since it is carefully planned in advance.

It also reduced TV and social media time.

You’ll also find that collaborative planning helps companies achieve goals faster and reduce firefighting.

We can rewrite the above quote for the family unit and it will still hold true:

"A family's culture is the foundation for generational wealth & togetherness. A parent's job is to build the foundation."

- Chibuzor Onwurah :-)

During our last family meeting, the kids asked to help plan our family-time schedule for March.

They want to switch things up by cooking a special family dinner together once a month on Friday nights, instead of ordering cheat meals.

It’s a great idea that will also improve their culinary skills.

We also use the meeting to give each other positive feedback for behaviors that align with our family values.

Similarly, a company that enables its staff to contribute meaningfully and acknowledges their wins, will, get higher quality contributions and emotional investment.

Now we are not perfect in any of these, and we will keep learning and improving along the way.

But the growth has been fantastic and encouraging to see. 

It’s no wonder the popular saying goes, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.”

Have a great week!

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