In a marketplace fraught with macroeconomic challenges and socio-political minefields, one of the top concerns among business leaders is their company culture. Wise leaders know that if a company can develop the right culture, nearly everything else will work better. Retention will improve, customer satisfaction will increase, and costs will go down. The problem is that there is no tidy checklist of steps that can be easily implemented in any company to produce the desired results. And with stubbornly-high inflation and soaring labor costs, organizations are looking for the cheapest route to cultural success.
So, what’s a company to do? Culture is too important to be ignored, but most leaders have no idea how to go about creating or improving it. I recently came across an article that stated, in all seriousness, that pizza was the single-best incentive for improving workplace productivity. And many leaders obviously agree because, somehow, the popular default has become, of all things, pizza.
Throughout my career, I’ve seen pizza thrown at all kinds of problems. Need team building? Order pizza! Need to show employee appreciation? Say thank you with pizza! Need to improve employee satisfaction? A free pizza lunch will surely do the trick. Except it won’t. I’ve had more free pizza at work than I care to admit, and at no point did a slice improve a team, break down a silo, or resolve any dissatisfaction I had with my job.
Personally, I’ve always found pizza as a reward in the workplace to be mildly insulting. Why? Because the first time I was rewarded with pizza was when I was in the 3rd grade and my class completed a reading challenge. Don’t get me wrong…pizza was a great reward in that case. We were happier to see the pizza guy than a Swiftie at a Taylor concert. But to take the same playbook used to motivate eight-year-olds and use it to try to win over adults with real challenges is condescending in the extreme. This isn’t to say that it’s never appropriate to provide food for employees, only that it’s inappropriate to use it as a tool intended to yield a cultural return.
Yes, culture is critical. No, there isn’t a silver bullet or one-size-fits-all solution. A company’s culture is no more and no less than how things are done there. It can’t be prescribed, as it is simply the byproduct of every decision and interaction. But there are some key places where leaders can make sure they’re doing the right thing. To improve your culture, make sure the company’s mission is clear, and that every employee understands how their work contributes to the success of the mission. Take care to ensure that leadership across the organization is aligned with the mission and with each other. Reward excellence with increased autonomy. Ensure pay is competitive, not exploitative. As a leader, be accessible, transparent and authentic.
And if you need a quick way to feel like a hero, I highly recommend delivering pizza to your local third grade classroom.