The Importance of Building Corporate Culture – Automation World

Jeff Miller, director of project management, Interstates

Todays workforce has just experienced a transformational shift. Though many people were working remotely before COVID-19, there were still many jobs and situations where it was thought to not be an option. COVID-19 crushed that notion and forced us to find a way to make remote work viable. But to make it worktechnically or even logisticallyis much easier than finding a way to make it work within company culture.

The following article was something that I started writing before COVID-19 was a reality, yet much of it still rings true and can be applied to anyone who now finds themselves experiencing or leading in a remote environment.

The longer Im in the workforce, the more I see the importance of building culture in our organizations. In the words of Tamien Dysart and Vaney Hariri of Think 3D, a corporate culture consulting firm, A culture will emerge whether intended or not, but if its not one you invest in, it will certainly be one that you pay for. This is so true and important to remember as your company grows and changes. Interstates has been investing in building a high-performance, high-trust culture for as long as I have been a part of the company, and this culture is what drew me to come to work for them over 20 years ago.

A few months ago, we brought in Think 3D consultants to help us focus on ensuring that all our office locations have the same culture. We have found that many of our remote locations tend to take on a variation of our corporate culture. We expect, and welcome, some of these variances among our offices, as subcultures emerge to give employees in each a collective to identify with. But the key with having office subcultures is to ensure they still align with your organizational culture core identity (i.e., your values, your vision, your why for existing).

Maintaining a corporate culture is difficult even when you are with all your people every day, but it certainly seems even harder when you are separated from them by miles. It pays great dividends to really invest in setting, maintaining, and living out the valued tenets of your culture every day.

Jeff Miller is a director of project management at Interstates, a certified member of the Control System Integrators Association (CSIA). For more information about Interstates, visit its profile on the Industrial Automation Exchange.

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The Importance of Building Corporate Culture - Automation World