Team Culture Report

Celebration

Celebrate good times, c’mon! It’s a celebration! 🎈

Your team has a medium Celebration score. Theoretically speaking, where your team is on the scale is ideal. Your team commemorates important milestones like a big sale, finishing a massive project, or achieving customer growth. That being said, some smaller successes may be overlooked for efficiency’s sake.

Another added bonus is the members of your team who dislike overly positive environments can benefit from a good Celebration balance.

Benefits of Medium Celebration

It’s easy to see how a culture of medium Celebration can be beneficial. Not only do people like to be praised, but research has also found that when a team member feels recognized, they’re likely to feel positive and fulfilled while at work.

The acknowledgement received from one’s leaders and peers nurtures self-confidence in the workplace. According to the Harvard Business Review , “Increased self-confidence, bolstered by continuous reinforcement, inspires people to do their best work, enabling them to make a dramatic and lasting impact on the organization.”

The Difference Between High and Medium Celebration

We’d like to clarify that you didn’t score high Celebration but medium Celebration.

In a team setting, the major downfall of high Celebration is prioritization of praise over the quality of a product. With medium Celebration, however, you give praise where praise is due, but also make sure to hold each other accountable. As a team, you’re just as comfortable with shooting each other a “great job” email as you are with delivering constructive criticism.

Quality

Your team has a medium Quality score. While your team values perfection (and would prefer that team members don’t make mistakes), it’s understood that life happens and mistakes are not only unavoidable, they’re an opportunity to learn. Allowing yourselves to fail and learn gives you, as a team, the freedom to learn from each other. This is especially helpful in situations where an individual lacks the necessary know-how to render high Quality products and services.

Your culture encourages you to do everything right and to uphold the company’s mission of quality and excellence; however, there’s also the belief that it’s possible to “fail forward.”

Benefits of Medium Quality

Clients who benefit from your team’s excellent services and products are sure to be happy. Your team strives to provide a service that society needs and wants, while making it excellent in the process. Some examples can be indestructible umbrellas during hurricane season, extremely durable shoes for the most experienced hikers, or tech with a 10-year guarantee to last.

However, one of the things that makes medium Quality a better option for most teams is a good balance of caring about the product and caring about your teammates. For example, Julie is a pastry chef who presses her team hard to create exquisite food – but she’s not against teaching someone her preferred way to make crème brûlée, and then supervising them until their results meet her satisfaction.

Difference Between High and Medium Quality

Your team may wonder why you scored medium Quality and not high. When a team has a culture of high Quality, they’re more likely to focus on the product over their team members’ well-being. This doesn’t mean they’re callous, however – just that their priority is to put forth good results.

Medium Quality, however, puts the well-being of the team’s colleagues and the quality of their products on equal footing. One is not more important than the other. One may even argue that a product cannot be good if the team is not culturally healthy.

Transparency

Your team has a high Transparency score. Your team’s motivation stems from the desire for honesty and cooperation. Aspects of work that are normally on a need-to-know basis are made available for all team members to see, such as schedules, deadlines, and spending.

There’s not just Transparency with information, but there’s also Transparency with decision-making. Team leaders make sure that all members are clued in to why a decision is made – anything from hiring on new team members, moving to another location, or accepting a client. Leaders may even ask for and implement team members’ opinions.

In cultures with high Transparency, it may be to the detriment of an individual to insist on privacy. Should the team encounter an issue, they must face it together and discuss solutions as a group. In cultures where Transparency is prioritized, you’re likely to see the following:

• Processes of those at the top of the organization can be viewed by all, such as email threads, online conversations, or video recordings of meetings.
• Salaries of each team member can be viewed by the public .
• Important company documents – financial documents, each other’s schedules, annual reports, etc. – are available to employees on every level.
• Team members are kept in the loop about all aspects of a project, from the color of the website header to the monthly content strategy plan to the pricing of products.

Benefits of High Transparency

Transparency is shown to correlate with higher employee morale – which, in turn, leads to higher productivity. When the team feels involved, it’s a win-win situation for the employers, the employees, and their client base.

Flaws of High Transparency

Transparency, though it’s great in theory, has the potential to backfire. Perhaps one of the biggest flaws of high Transparency is the chance of junior members overstepping their boundaries – it’s dangerous for a team when the senior members’ decisions are de-legitimized by junior members.

Also, no matter how great information sharing is, there will always be personality types who chafe against the pressure to be Transparent. Please note that this doesn’t mean such individuals are flawed in any way, but rather the culture itself makes them uncomfortable.

As with every team culture, it’s wise to maintain balance.

Tempering High Transparency

Transparency is all the rage nowadays, and for a good reason – a transparent process allows team members to feel involved and engaged in their work, one of the most important things for employee satisfaction.

However, there’s a dark side to Transparency as well. In some cases, being too transparent has backfired, leaving team members even more distrustful of each other than before. To properly wield high Transparency, team leaders must know how to mitigate such unintended consequences as stunted creativity, or processes extending five times their average duration.

With all this being said, high Transparency isn’t so easily tamed. Your team’s culture is based on the personalities of individuals before they entered the team. If it was the promise of Transparency that attracted individuals to the team, it wouldn’t be the best idea to enforce private decision-making practices.

Instead, discuss as a team what parts of your culture you’d like to change. Sometimes it will take just a little modification to make everyone happy. If the answer is to indeed make things less transparent, then it may be time to figure out what is working about your specific brand of Transparency – and what isn’t.

Opposition

Your team has a low Opposition score.

In your team environment, it’s generally agreed upon that outlier opinions should be kept to oneself. People who rock the boat aren’t tolerated well – and if someone does have a contrary opinion, they’re encouraged to present this opinion as carefully and as politely as possible.

Benefits of Low Opposition

Low Opposition works best in teams where there are established practices that should not be challenged, such as security firms, law enforcement, or the military. When many things can go wrong, it’s best to have a strict chain of command. Perhaps the worst thing one can do in the heat of a crisis is butt heads with their colleagues.

Flaws of Low Opposition

When there isn’t room to speak up, or there’s an expectation of punishment for doing so, it can cause stress for many personality types, no matter the industry. When there’s no outlet in the workplace for a team’s stress and anxiety, it can lead to lower team morale.

Tempering Low Opposition

When you’re in a culture of low Opposition, you are encouraged to not speak up. While this may be necessary for your industry – if you’re in the military, for example – it can still feel invalidating and degrading. For any personality type, not having the ability to speak up when they feel the need to can be a demoralizing blow to team members.

If your team is in a culture with low Opposition, it isn’t enough to simply say, “Well, change it.” There’s a reason why your culture is the way it is, and that’s because it works well for your team’s ultimate objective. However, in the case that teammates do want to voice an opinion, here are some ways they can do it:

• Gather evidence before stating your argument. If you disagree with an established standard, it will be to your benefit to have proof before presenting it. Things like stats, surveys, and trends are likely to help your case.
• Form your opposition to look like you’re asking for advice. When you ask a person in a position of power for advice, it flatters them and humbles you. The likelihood that you’ll receive your desired outcome increases when their defenses are lower.
• If it’s not possible to voice opposition in any way whatsoever, a team should designate an outlet of some kind where those who are quietly oppositional can voice their concerns. This outlet can be an on-site therapist, an anonymous review box, or creating a group where those on the floor can be free from the watchful eyes of those in management.

Affirmation

Your team likes to have everyone on the same page, but as a unit you’re perfectly fine if someone disagrees every now and then. Because of this, your team culture has a medium Affirmation score. Teams with medium results on Affirmation don’t insist on having total agreement but still prefer if team members have the same opinion on most matters.

In the best-case scenario, decisions are made by consensus – but if someone disagrees, it’s not viewed as a failure for the team.

Benefits of Medium Affirmation

Medium Affirmation can be ideal for a team: a balanced position where most decisions are preferably made by consensus, but some (most likely those deemed less important) are not subject to such scrutiny.

The Difference Between High and Medium Affirmation

When a team has high Affirmation, it can be said that the status quo is law. “Rocking the boat” is not tolerated, and if someone does disagree with the consensus, they must argue their case in the politest way possible. To agree with one another is very important to organizations with high Affirmation.

Organizations who score medium in Affirmation may believe that it is important to agree, but that the existing standard can be challenged if the reasoning is good enough.

Innovation

One of your highest priorities as a team is to create products and services that reinvent the ordinary. This is why your team’s culture has a high Innovation score. Your team is always searching for new ideas, new ways to do things, and new ways to see things.

There can be several different personalities on your team to ensure that no one ever feels “settled.” By having opposing personalities, contrast is always at the forefront, which leads to new ideas.

More often than not, you’re asked to brainstorm, prototype, and design think your way into new solutions. While this leads to amazing products, however, it can also lead to severe burnout.

Benefits of High Innovation

A team with high Innovation will be able to generate lots of ideas. This is especially useful in situations that need out-of-the box approaches.

Flaws of High Innovation

Innovation is great, but if the situation demands tried-and-tested approaches, too many creative ideas can actually be detrimental. Furthermore, there are industries where there are established products that are difficult to improve upon – and where the creative potential of a team can be wasted.

Tempering High Innovation

Innovation for innovation’s sake does not inherently bring value to an organization. This is the biggest issue that teams with a culture of high Innovation are likely to face. When it comes to business, Innovation needs to be directed to be of any value. If Innovation efforts at your company don’t have clear objectives, they might lead you to spend money and time on something that, while cool, may not have any impact on your team’s original mission.

When it comes to Innovation, the question should always be, “Will this innovation actually improve the project/production for the final user/client?” and not “Can we build the thing?”

The greatest advice we can offer teams with a high Innovation culture is to participate as much as possible in that endless conversation between creators and users. Stay in touch with the real-world needs and dilemmas of your clients.

Changing Company Culture

If your current culture isn’t to your team’s liking, the first step toward change is knowing why your team is the way it is.

To figure out the makeup and dynamic of your team, ask yourself a few questions:

• What sort of personalities are on your team?
• Who are the quiet ones?
• Who is conflict-averse?
• Who brings optimistic energy?
• Who needs more recognition?
• Who values independence?

The answers to these questions can be found through a number of psychometric methods, including our own assessments.

Once you’ve figured out which individuals make up the team, it could be beneficial to try an exercise called Stop, Start, Continue. As a team, collectively decide what tactics to stop, which to start, and which are working for you and that you want to continue.

While the exercise sounds easy enough, it takes great effort to change a culture. To achieve the envisioned culture, the entire team must put in work every day. It’s very easy to slip back into old habits, so try your best to hold each other accountable!

Current vs. Ideal Culture

Your team ranks possible team cultures in the following order of priority. Numbers in brackets show how many times team members picked behaviors associated with that quality.