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A KERWIN RAE EBOOK

HOW TO
BUILD
CULTURE
THAT WINS
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CONTENTS

The benefits of a strong culture 03

The foundations of culture 04

Tight teams get tight results 05

Why would anyone want to work for you? 06

Checklist to keep your culture strong 08

4 bond boosters 09

What you can do next…. 12


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THE BENEFITS OF A
STRONG CULTURE
It’s important to understand that businesses with a strong culture generally
experience higher employee retention rates and higher productivity and profits,
which drives faster revenue growth.

But what is culture in the context of business?

“The values and behaviors that contribute to the unique social and psychological
environment of an organisation.

Organisational culture includes an organisation’s expectations, experiences,


philosophy, and values that hold a team together. It is based on shared attitudes,
beliefs, customs, and written and unwritten rules that have been developed over
time and are considered valid.

It affects the organisation’s productivity and performance, and provides


guidelines on customer care and service, product quality and safety, attendance
and punctuality, and concern for the environment.”

In our workplace, having a strong culture fosters high performance, execution of


priorities, innovation and a family like environment that our team can thrive in.

TOP 4 BENEFITS OF A STRONG CULTURE

It communicates leadership expectations to the entire


01 team for the day to day operational and communication
expectations.

It creates a team of high performers that thrive and are


02 able to self lead, self manage and self direct, that ultimately
supports our mission.

It is attractive to prospective job applicants because there

03
is a level of transparency about who the organisation is at
a grassroots level, why we do what we do and where we’re
headed, and as we all know, like attracts like.

04 A strong culture becomes part of your brand identity.

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THE FOUNDATIONS
OF CULTURE
The foundations of a strong culture for a business, or enterprise, are:

VISION
A vision and/or mission statement that communicates very clearly
and simply the values of the organisation is a foundational element of
culture. Example: Our Kerwin Rae mission is “To create the world’s most
exclusive network and tribe of elite business owners and conscious
entrepreneurs with over 600 K2 Elite by 2020.”

VALUES
Your organisation’s values are the core of your culture and authenticity
is key. Example: “We respond quickly.”

PRACTICES
This is where the values are reflected in your organisation’s day to day
practices. Example: Open communication practices.

PEOPLE
Your people, your team, need to share the core values.
Example: Recruiting people who demonstrate their values align with
your organisation’s.

NARRATIVE
The power of the narrative is an organisation’s unique history and/or
unique story. The narrative becomes more powerful when retold as part
of a business’ evolving culture. Example: Kerwin Rae was established in
2000, our first office was in North Sydney and we now live in the heart
of Pyrmont. Kerwin Rae is an international business educator.

PLACE
Elements of place, like geography, architecture or design impacts on the
values and behaviors of people in their working spaces. Place shapes
culture, for example open architecture encourages collaborations.
Example: Our open plan offices promote easy collaborations.

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TIGHT TEAMS
GET RESULTS

With technology enabling us to work anywhere and everywhere at all hours of the
day or night, a lot of people are questioning whether it’s essential to have a one-place
team work space.

My take on it is I think wherever possible it’s important to work together because tight
teams get results.

Do I make exceptions? Yeah I do, but it’s very rare because here’s what I’ve learnt.

The real team culture is built when there is a friction of bodies in the
same place.

By friction I’m not talking about negativity I’m talking about the energy
that’s created when people come together.

This generates the vibes, the essence and the feeling of the company.

It creates a space where people feel part of something special and


bigger than themselves. A real purpose and a real mission.

So I think it’s really important to ensure a company has a lot of contact hours together
to create that friction.

But it’s important that that friction is producing good energy. This starts at the top
with great leadership, leadership that is calm, assertive and strong.
So in my books – create a strong culture by keeping your team together and the
results will speak for themselves.

The complete guide to creating a strong culture | 5


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WHY WOULD ANYONE
WANT TO WORK FOR YOU?

The job market is huge and with the rise of technology, employees have more
options than ever and can now even work all over the world. So the question is, why
would anyone want to work for you? If you don’t know, let me tell you…

Just because you’ve made the decision to get into business, it doesn’t mean people
are going to be flocking to work for you.

The job market is insanely huge, and with employees wanting to work from home and
during the hours that suit them, you have to be worth working for in order to get a
look in.

There are basically two ways you can do this.

One – you pay them. Seems obvious right. You put a job on Seek, people apply for
the job, they come in, they have the skills you’re looking for, you hire them and then
pay them to perform the required function.

Ultimately they work for you because of the pay cheque.

But what happens when things get difficult or hard? What happens when other
priorities pop up?

Are they going to sacrifice your priorities for their own? After all, the only reason why
they are there is because of the money which they can get from a whole range of
different sources.

I prefer option two, which is to create a movement.

I don’t care if you’ve got a directional drilling business, a concrete business, a


web design business or an accounting firm – you should always try and create a
movement around what it is that you do.

People like to work for something bigger than themselves that makes them feel good
about what they do.

You need to define what you stand for and then learn how to communicate it with
your team in a meaningful way. And you can do that with these steps.

6 | The complete guide to creating a strong culture


01
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DEFINE THE COMPANY VISION
It communicates leadership expectations to the entire team for
the day to day operational and communication expectations.

02 DEFINE THE COMPANY MISSION


What is it that the business is trying to do in the next five to ten
years?

The mission should be directly aligned to the purpose. You want


to be thinking of the amount of clients you want to be serving,
the reach you want to have, the people’s lives you want to
touch… and then what the financial outcomes of that will be. But
money shouldn’t be a focus because if you’re executing on the
mission properly money will be a natural consequence.

03 DEFINE THE COMPANY VALUES


You need to be able to communicate the company values. This
is your company GPS system. It’s the benchmark behaviours
and traits that you are looking for to be demonstrated naturally
in the individuals that you want to be working with, but most
importantly the behaviours that are demonstrated by you.

When defining values most people look at how they would like
to be, not how they are, and to me this is nothing more than
aspirational.

Values need to be generated from within based on the things


that are important to you that you demonstrate on a regular
basis. And if you’re not already doing them you need to start
doing them over and over again until they become automatic
behaviours.

When you’re clear on the purpose, mission and values you can
then communicate them to your team and during the interview
process in a very compelling way. All of a sudden you have
people who are sitting in front of you who are talent – who don’t
do a job because they get paid, they do it because they love it
and they’re just looking for the right home that they can put their
bags in.

What we’re talking about here is culture. The root of a culture is a


movement and to stand for something you believe in, that others
can believe in too.

The complete guide to creating a strong culture | 7


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CHECKLIST TO KEEP YOUR
CULTURE STRONG
You probably know by now that we keep our culture very strong and some of the
ways we do that are;

DAILY HUDDLE
We meet each morning listing our top 3 tasks for the day and
acknowledge the previous days tasks as; done, not done or in progress.
WEEKLY CHECK-INS: INDIVIDUAL TEAM MEMBERS WITH TEAM LEADER
Team leaders meet one-on-one for 15 minutes to check in on tasks
weekly progress.

WEEKLY TEAM MEETING: E.G. SOCIAL TEAM


All team members in a department meet to cover the weeks progress on
projects.

MONTHLY TEAM LUNCH


The whole team have lunch together.

ANNUAL TEAM RETREAT


The whole team are taken to an off-site conference or resort for annual
planning.
STOCKING FRESH GROCERIES
The organisation stocks weekly groceries for the team.

STOCKING VITAMINS AND SUPPLEMENTS


The organisation stocks vitamins and supplements for the team.

OCCASIONAL RANDOM FUN TEAM ACTIVITIES: E.G. TRIVIA ETC.


Our customer loving team hosts fun bonding activities about once
a month.

REGULAR PLANNING MEETINGS


We have annual, quarterly, monthly, and weekly planning meetings.

You have got to remember that by creating a strong culture you are supporting and
retaining your team of high performers, and the results will speak for themselves. And
logically, how much time, money and energy is saved with good solid team retention.
Lots. Lots and lots.

So, you’re off the leash now…


Start creating a strong culture for your team and business to thrive - today!

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4 BOND BOOSTERS
Understand, it’s your talent and your team that in the long run are going to give you
the level of freedom you aspire to, in order to do more of the things you love and
the things you’re good at. These are the people that are going to enable you to
drive your purpose forward.

01 NURTURE YOUR TALENT


It’s important to nurture and maintain the relationships you have
with your team members, your talent, because the quality of
those relationships will be in direct proportion to their willingness
to go above and beyond for the mission.

The quality of your work environment and your culture will


directly influence the quality of the relationships you have with
them.

The reality is we spend more time with our team members than
we do with our own family and for me it’s probably fair to say
that these people have become part of my family because of the
sheer amount of hours we spend together.

When we look at what we want from a team, it’s very similar to


the values we have in a family dynamic – we want love, care and
we want honesty, so why not treat your team as family.

What can you do to strengthen your relationship with your team?

02 CONNECT WITH THE TEAM


Each month I like to connect with every single team member
for at least 10 minutes. It’s a set meeting in the diary which is
dedicated to them.

Sometimes they’ll come in and start listing off things they’re


working on, where they’re at, or apologise for something that’s
gone wrong. I’ll say, “Hang on wait, this meeting isn’t about
reviewing your work, this is about you. This is about how you’re
doing, what’s going on in your life, how are your relationships?
How’s your health? What fun things have you been up to lately?”

I literally connect with them on a real and personal level because


I’ve learned that the more personal those relationships become,
the deeper they go, and the better quality they will be…because
people that care more will always give more.

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03 NEVER SPEAK POORLY ABOUT TEAM MEMBERS PUBLICLY
This is important because as social animals we look at people’s
behaviour and we often create a blanket judgement.

So, you’re in the office and one of your team members isn’t there
and you speak really poorly about them, it’s fair to say that a
couple of people might look at you and go, “Woah that’s a bit
harsh. I wonder if they talk about me in the same way when I’m
not here”.

If you have a challenge with a team member, deal with it one on


one. If there’s something that needs to be dealt with open and
honestly in front of the team, do it when everyone is there so
they all have an opportunity to give their own point of view.

When it’s due publicly and socially acknowledge their efforts


because it’s not always about outcome and do this at every
opportunity.

Social acknowledgement is a really potent reward that creates


a strong level of motivation that drives people forward. It fires
people up and makes them feel incredible, and encourages
them to keep demonstrating the behaviours that got them
acknowledged in the first place.

04 DO THE UNEXPECTED
For me this is about giving back, and there are so many different
ways you can give back to your team.

I randomly told the guys a few weeks ago that I was buying
everyone in the office a thick shake – now it’s turned into a ‘thick
shake Friday’ ritual. I mix it up and occasionally do a fat Kit-Kat
Thursday. Or I’ll buy lunch for everyone unexpectedly.

And at the end of last year I took everyone on a surprise trip to


the Gold Coast for our annual planning.

The reason why we want to give back to these people is because


they give so much to us.

Yes it’s fair to say, ‘But Kerwin I give them a pay cheque every
week, I give them security, I give them a job…’

Yeah, but that’s the base line. If we are trying to build good
relationships, then we need to go that little bit further.
So my advice to you is find ways to give back to your team
today, and start doing things that are going to build a stronger

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relationship with your talent, because after all, they are the
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people who are going to help you achieve your mission and
help you fulfil your purpose. They’re worth it!
FIND WAYS TO GIVE BACK TO YOUR TEAM TODAY!

Team bonding activities boost team morale in a light hearted and


casual way. Activities can give team members more insight into
each others native strengths, weakness and interests.

HERE’S 4 BOND BOOSTERS FOR YOUR TEAM

01
Internal clubs: Book clubs, sports teams, pub or restaurant
gang.

02
Charades: Break the team up into smaller teams to play
charades.

03
Scavenger hunts: Create clues and place them strategically
to be found by searching team players.

04
Truth or Lie: Team members come up with three truths and
one lie about themselves, other team members have to
pick the lie.

Somewhere there’s going to be laughter, and we all know that’s the quickest
communication and mood enhancer between people. Bond boosters are a nice
sticky way to create positive team connections.

PLAN YOUR NEXT TEAM BOND BOOSTING ACTIVITY TODAY!

The complete guide to creating a strong culture | 11


what you
can do
next
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Copyright © 2019 Kerwin Rae.


All rights reserved. No part of this Ebook may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including
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given a remuneration notice to Copyright Agency Limited (CAL) under the Act. Any views and opinions expressed herein are strictly the
author’s own.

Rae, Kerwin
Culture Ebook Version 2
First published & distributed December 2018 by Kerwin Rae
This is proudly a Kerwin Rae resource

Disclaimer
The content of this Culture Ebook is to serve as a general overview of matters of interest and is not intended to be comprehensive,
nor does it constitute financial (or other) advice in any way. This Ebook is a compilation of one person’s ideas, concepts, ideologies,
philosophies and opinions. You should carry out your own research and/or seek your own professional advice before acting or relying
on any of the information displayed in this Ebook. The author, and its related entities will not be liable for any loss or damage (financial
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outcomes if you choose to adopt and/or use the ideas, concepts, ideologies, philosophies and opinions within the content of this Ebook.

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