Better Together: Building a Positive Culture

The groups we are part of and the culture of those groups can have a huge impact on us. This is true for children in the classroom, athletes on sports teams, and even professionals in an office setting. The distinct culture of these groups can drastically affect performance and overall happiness for members. For this reason, it is vital that groups build a positive culture.

positive culture

 

In a previous post about The Power of a Mental Reset, I wrote about one of the many connections between rowing and mental health in daily life. Being on a rowing team, I’ve learned a lot about how important team culture can be. My team has made some amazing transitions this season to build a more positive culture!

 

How to Build a Positive Culture:

  1. Expect the Best. For my team, this meant approaching everything with an attitude that we will be successful. Having this expectation drove everyone to do their best and to support each other in pushing through boundaries. We also focused on lifting up the team from the bottom. Instead of focusing on the highest achieving athletes, we all work with and encourage the athletes who need more help and support. That way, the entire team gets better together.
  2. Grow Healthy Relationships. To improve the culture of the overall team, we had to get rid of smaller cliques within the team. It sounds juvenile, but once we established relationships across the entire team, communication improved and everyone felt like they were accepted. The most important part of this is establishing mutual respect for everyone, regardless of ability or age.
  3. Turn the Negatives into Positives. My coach has these great sayings that she breaks out whenever the team hits a barrier: “Fladaptability” and “control the controllables.” Fladaptability is a hybrid of “flexible” and “adaptability.” These sayings remind the team that there are things beyond our control, so we must adapt to make the best out of whatever situation we have. With this attitude we can celebrate when we get decent weather and adjust accordingly when we don’t. Because of this mindset, the team’s overall attitude has become significantly more positive and our practices are much more satisfying.

 

Benefits of a Positive Culture

Having a positive culture can benefit any kind of team. Classrooms and study groups too can also benefit from making their culture more positive.

  1. Better recruitment. For sports teams, having a positive culture and good reputation can attract great candidates to join your team. New blood can help push everyone to try their hardest and lead to great friendships.
  2. Work ethic. For students and athletes alike, working in a classroom or on a team with a positive culture can lead to better work and higher productivity. If students feel like their school work has meaning, they will put in more effort.
  3. Collaboration. When group members have positive relationships with one another, they can collaborate better. This improves the group’s performance and makes the work more fun for everyone on the team.
  4. Less stress. When a group embraces positive culture, they reduce stress culture. This reduces stress for the group members, which can improve health and increase overall happiness. Students are already under enough stress as it is, so any method of reducing classroom stress will be hugely beneficial for their health and happiness!

 

For more information on building positive corporate culture, check out the next post.

 

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