Have you ever walked into a business and read the words on walls?

I read many posts on social media about culture, more specifically work culture. What does that look like?

For me, at Improving, it looks like the image below.

In the IT services industry, we support our clients. A challenge is we are working shoulder to shoulder with our clients.

At times, we might lose focus on what makes us different and unique as service providers. We’re being asked to do challenging work yet stay above some of the messiness our clients are addressing.

This is where culture becomes critical. As an Improver, I am deeply involved in Improving’s success. I enjoy working with my client, and I do my best to maintain a professional space so that I can serve them.

Our culture, at Improving, is more than the words on the wall. It is a sense of belonging to a group of outstanding professionals that make us unique.

Are we perfect? No. Do we fail? From time to time. Do we get better? Yes, hence the name Improving.

How can companies balance employee desires and business priorities?

I suggest an answer is in the quote below. Take a minute or two to dwell on the words.

Work culture is a collection of shared beliefs that the organization seeks to align to. When accounting for each person, it is hard to find alignment on those beliefs.

Thankfully, Improving has thought through what that looks like for both the business and the people who make it successful.

Are we perfect in balancing between ourselves and others while showing dedication? My assessment is, we are, more often than not.

The good news is we can model and show other organizations what that looks like in practice!

I left the best quote for last. Yeah, time to self-report.

This is an area where I struggle. I’ve often thought, “You were in the military, you should have this in your DNA by now.”

No, not so much.

But I’m practicing being excellent each day. Like writing, this post.

I cannot become an excellent writer without daily practice—the same with presenting concepts and ideas. If I don’t make a habit of speaking, then I cannot expect excellence.

At the team level, it’s the same. We ought to be building excellent products and creating excellent services. We create risk we avoid showing our work to each other, our stakeholders, our users, our clients, or our community.

Risk can then become issues that cause weeks or months of rework. All because we didn’t understand the intent of the people we serve.

Yeah, I brought teamwork into the conversation here. It’s because teamwork is bigger than a team. It takes a community.

To be excellent, it starts with you and me. To make it a persistent habit, it resides in the community.

Do you agree, or am I completely wrong?