Company Culture is unbelievably powerful, it defines what and how work actually gets done. I use a simple yet powerful way of looking at culture and how you can make changes, despite the doom-mongers who say otherwise.

Late August gives me an itch. Or a disturbance in the Force…whatever you fancy.

It’s that end of summer / start of school thing. I’ve always been a bit conflicted about this time of year because, when I was a child, I loved the freedom of summer holidays and also (shh, secretly and rather shame-facedly) rather relished the structure and hope presented by the new school year. So here I am today, with my sadness at the loss of summertime freedom to meet and play out with my family and friends, to relax and let my mind roam, coupled with the anticipation of the September back-to-work and structured dynamism of client work. 

The great thing is that I get the sense I’m not alone in having a dual relationship with this time of year, even though this year in the UK, late August has a very odd pre-Brexit vibe.

For example, yesterday I met up with the CEO of a large SME. When I last saw her in late June she was, frankly, looking drained and depleted. Yesterday, she was positively buzzing and full of enthusiasm for the business growth strategies that the summer break had allowed her to generate; looking forward to sharing her vision and passion with her colleagues. We talked at length about her vision for the type of culture she wants to create that will enable those growth strategies.

It’s great she’s so buzzing, and she’s right to ask the culture question linked with visionary growth; culture is unbelievably powerful. It defines what and how work actually gets done so, naturally, those bubbling with enthusiasm for the return to work and the can-do phase want to bring their company along with them. In the field of organisational psychology that I work in, Transactional Analysis, there is a simple yet powerful way of looking at company culture. 

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