Why Human-Centric Team Culture?

The way we build culture needs to change. Gone are the days of a top down, autocratic approach to culture creation. The future of work requires a decentralised, democratic approach. A culture that is created by your employees, for your employees. We call this a Human-Centric Team Culture.

The way we build culture needs to change.

Before

Culture created by management, driven top-down

After

Culture is created from within, both top-down and bottom-up

A human-centric team culture focusses on the most human of values and needs. It embraces communication, encourages feedback, inspires innovation and prioritises creating a psychologically safe environment that allows everyone to thrive.

When looking to understand what makes up a human-centric team culture, it's useful to consider Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. At the bottom of the pyramid are the fundamental things we as humans need to survive such as health, wellbeing and safety. As you move up the pyramid needs evolve to include more empathetic elements such as relationships, opportunities for growth and self-fulfillment.

In a human-centric culture, leaders understand that their people are their most valuable asset and all have unique skills, backgrounds and needs. Only by creating an environment that fulfills all of these human needs can they expect to get the most out of them.

From Resources to Human Resources

Put simply you need to prioritise people and purpose over profit. This doesn't mean ignoring the need to generate revenue, in fact a human-centric team culture is proven to increase revenues and profit per employee (more on the below!). But leaders of human-centric team cultures recognise that their future workforce comes from a generation more motivated by purpose than pay.

Working to live, or living to work in 2023?

To answer the question why human-centric team culture is something your future business simply cannot live without, you need to understand the motivations behind why your employees come to work.

Your future workforce are living in a Social Revolution. They are not motivated by survival like their grandparents or by standard of living like their parents, the Millenial and Gen Z workforce are motivated by quality of life. They are proactively looking for a more human work environment. One with purpose and meaning and built on opportunity, high trust and recognition.

Why we work has changed.

Industrial Revolution

People worked to survive

The Information Revolution

People worked for Pay & Status

The Social Revolution

People work for Purpose, Meaning and Progression

The last 3 years has seen a transformational change in the way people work. From in person at the office, to remote and from anywhere - how we work has changed forever. But conscious leaders need to not only be considering how the working world has changed but what their employees need from their role in order to be the best version of themselves.

Culture as a Competitive Advantage

So is a human-centric team culture really an investment worth making? Absolutely it is! Not only is it a competitive advantage in the war for talent, helping you attract and retain the best employees, it is also the best way to get the most from your existing teams. Happier, healthier, more engaged employees are more creative, innovative and productive. They generate 4 x more revenue for your business and 21% more profit.

On the other hand, those organisations with a poor workplace culture have increased presenteeism, increased burnout, high levels of employee turnover and most costly of all, a disengaged workforce.

Investing in team culture makes good business sense.

The Human-Centric Team Leader

So where do you start? Traditional culture building rituals like team coffee runs and office parties are a thing of the past. Culture of the future is about creating a high trust environment where all employees feel safe, psychologically accepted and empowered.

The creation of this high trust environment starts with your Team Leaders. Human-Centric Teams require Human-Centric Leaders. Why? Because 70% of the variance between average, good, and great team cultures can be found in the knowledge, skills, and talent of your managers.

Human-centric leaders lead with intention. They must lead in a truly authentic, empathetic way, constantly aligning the wants and needs of their team members with those of the wider organisation. They connect with their employees on an emotional level and this connection is the driving force behind everything that they do.

Creating truly human-centric team leaders isn't an easy process and will require commitment, resilience and some re-learning, but with the right tools and a leadership team that holds them to account, it is possible to create a truly human-centric organisation. And when you do, the results will be extraordinary!

Introducing The Culture Academy

The biggest challenge companies and leaders face when it comes to curating and nurturing strong team culture is not the theory or the why. It is putting it into action - the how.

The Culture Academy by Kaido exists to show your Team Leaders how to build more human-centric team cultures through action focussed, cohort based learning.

The Culture Academy teaches the practical skills needed to build human-centric team culture from within through a combination of live workshops, self-directed action weeks, guided reflection and community support.

It explicitly focuses on helping your Team Leaders nurture their individual team cultures, helping them to move the needle, and in turn, help you make team culture your competitive advantage.