A company’s culture has a great influence on all areas of the business. We spend a lot of time at work, sometimes more than with our own families, so it’s important that all team members have clarity on the company culture in order to grow and promote a positive environment. 

Most importantly, cultivating a positive company culture that your team and patients can thrive in is critical to the success of your chiropractic office. In this article, I will outline some of the ways to create a positive company culture in your office.

So what is company culture? A company’s culture is its personality. If your company were a person, meeting someone for the first time, what impression would it give? And what things would it talk about in that meeting? Would your company make a good first impression? What about the 6th visit or the 10th visit? Would the message be consistent? Would your company culture be one that cultivates patient loyalty? Do people want to be there? Work there? Do they feel joy when they spend time there?

Your company culture defines the environment you work in, inspires and motivates your team members. People will gravitate towards it and want to be a part of its success. Negative company culture is toxic, cold, leads to unhappy team members and unsatisfied patients.

Your company culture may include a variety of elements, including the beliefs, attitudes, behaviors, values, and goals of the organization.

Examples of a Positive Company Culture:

• All team members are expected to maintain the health and wellness culture of chiropractic. 
  • Any personal views or opinions which are counter to this culture should remain private. 
  • This means no unhealthy food or drinks are allowed in the office.
  • Encourage all team members to get regular chiropractic care.
• We promote kindness and integrity.
  • Do not tolerate gossip, drama or office politics. 
  • Engage with one another in a positive way throughout the workday.
• We conduct weekly team training or health talks that promote a healthy lifestyle.
  • Team members are encouraged to contribute.
• We promote an autonomous environment.
  • Team members are trusted to have ownership over their work and that they have the individual power to improve results. 
  • We encourage team members to give feedback and creative input in order to reach our goals.

Who defines the company culture? Typically the company owner is the one who creates the vision and defines the culture. However, it’s important that key team members are involved in outlining, adopting, and promoting the culture throughout the organization.

In order to help you build a successful company culture, ask yourself these three questions:

1. Why does your business exist?
2. What are your core values?
3. What’s your vision for the business?

Answering these three questions is crucial in order to get clarity around your own company culture. For example, in our organization, we adopt the values, ethics, and mission of our leader (the company owner). From there, the leader and key team members got together and developed it more. You would be surprised how so many of our team members suggested values that hadn’t been thought of but were already part of why they loved the environment that already existed. 

Once you have clarity around your company culture, allow it to guide you and your team in all that you do. Your culture plays a role in EVERY aspect of your operations. Hiring? Make sure you hire a candidate that aligns with your culture. Have a challenging situation with a team member or practice member? Be sure that how you handle the situation follows your core values and the culture and environment that you’ve created. Want teamwork to be part of your company culture? Plan team bonding days. Once the culture is defined, protect it, and enforce it. 

To help you get started, here is how we developed our core values.  

1. The company leaders each write as many core values as they can think of on index cards.  One core value on each card.
2. Place all the cards on a table and start matching up the common ones.
3. Discuss the values and why they are important.
4. When comparing similar values, ask the question, “If I had to only have one of these, which would it be”.
5. Try to narrow the list down to the ones that you must have.

When we did this exercise, our core values were narrowed down to ten things that have deep meaning to the way we conduct business, how we serve our clients and how we function as a team. These ten core values then helped us to define our company culture. Here are the core values we adopted: Team, Perseverance, No Gossip, Optimism, Integrity, Loyalty, Innovation, Quality, Service, Well-being, and Heart.  Knowing these values guides us in everything we do as a company.

Okay…. now it’s your turn. I challenge you to hold a team meeting this week and discuss the ways in which your organization is cultivating a positive company culture that your team and patients can thrive in.

Original article was featured in the April 2020 issue of The Chiropractic Assistant.

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