Culture is Everything

Why you MUST have core values in your vision

Core values, the 3-5 behaviours that define a company culture, are a critical part of any long term vision. 

At The Physio Co our four core values are described in detail on page three of our Painted Picture of 2012.  One entire page of this six page vision is dedicated to our core values.  Why? Because our Painted Picture is designed to share the future of The Physio Co and attract people that are aligned to where we are headed.  

A commitment to live The Physio Co’s four core values every day is the common link that every member of The Physio Co family shares.  Therefore, the core values are the thread that aligns our team to our vision.

Core values are the building blocks or the foundation of any great company.  Include them in your vision and make your dreams come to life.

Original Article

FREE BOOK - A look inside one of Australia’s Best Companies

Very rarely do you get a chance to see inside a fast growing business. Here’s your chance! To celebrate our 8th birthday we have opened the door to let everyone check out our award winning culture at The Physio Co! 

Since 2009, The Physio Co has been listed as one of Australia’s Best Places to Work and Fastest Growing SME’s. Inspired by Tony Hsieh & Zappos, The Physio Co have created the first edition of our very own culture book.

The short ebook details the thoughts of more than 30 TPCers (members of The Physio Co team) on what is The Physio Co Culture.  It has pictures, quotes and thoughts on why The Physio Co family is such a great place to work.  Take 3-minutes to read, explore and share.

A copy is waiting for you right here: ’The Physio Co 2012 Culture Book: a sneaky peek inside our award winning culture’.   

If you like it, please do me a favour and share it with at least one other person.  You can email it, print it, share it on facebook or tweet it! It doesn’t matter how you do it, but please send it to at least one other person.  This book was made to be shared!

Have an awesome day,

Tristan White, CEO

PS - If you’d like to receive these Culture is Everything posts in your email, subscribe here.

Living your core values - it’s the small things..

Businesses based upon living a set of core values often have the very best workplace cultures.  The way those values are lived everyday is what builds the strong culture.  Importantly, the very smallest gesture that lives a core value can make the biggest impact.

At The Physio Co, one of our core values is Be Memorable.  This value guides us to be ‘friendly and make positive first impressions.’  One small way that our team lives this value is in our emails.  Since 2009, The Physio Co support team have all had “Have a great day” as the way we sign off from every email. 

This very small change has had a huge impact on many.  People continue to notice it, mention it and associate it with The Physio Co. Three years on, these four words continue to live our Be Memorable value and reinforce to everyone that we are a positive and welcoming family. 

What small change could you make today that will live your values and build a stronger team?

Lesson learned - “Keep Calm & Carry On”

We’ve had a couple of bumps in the road at The Physio Co this week.  Nothing too serious, a client made a decision we didn’t agree with, a recent hire departed and our damn phones stopped working!

In the past, problems like these would have troubled me a lot. I probably would’ve lost sleep, I definitely would’ve had a headache and it’s likely a few more grey hairs would have appeared!  But not so much this time.  Why?  Two reasons:

1. I’m confident that we have the right people on our team to get where we need to go in the long term; &
2. I’ve learnt that, as hard as we try, sometimes things go wrong and we just have to learn from them.

As we prepare to celebrate our 8th birthday, it seems that The Physio Co is growing up - that’s a fantastic feeling!

_______________________________________________

**This post is from the 2012 series ‘What I’ve learnt this week’. If you’d like to receive these and other Culture is Everything posts in your email, subscribe here.

How storytelling builds a strong culture

Sharing stories of team members living core values and then celebrating their successes is one of the best ways to build a strong family culture.

At The Physio Co we tell a short, 30-second story of a team member living one of our four core values everyday at our daily huddle.  To The Point, our 12-minute huddle has a set agenda and one day per week each member of our support team shares a story of another TPCer living a core value.

Similar to how we use core values for recognition, the stories are told like this:

Value - Find a better way: we inspire others by continually finding a better way

Who lived it - MT

How - MT (TPC physio) went shopping in her own time and with her own money to buy some new shoes for an elderly resident who had no family or friends to do it for her. The brand new shoes made the resi feel very special and of course she’s now much safer on her feet. Thanks MT, you’ve inspired us all to continue finding a better way!

Positive stories of team mates getting great results and being recognised by their peers is fun, feels great and helps to focus everyone on what works.

Storytelling is without doubt THE best way to build and strengthen a strong family culture.   No matter how many stories you’re already telling, I reckon you can always tell more! 

What’s TW up to? Jan 31-Feb 6

In short, here’s my week. I’m..

Core values for attracting the right staff

A strong family culture is essentially a group of people that live and believe in a small set of shared values. Therefore, growing a values-based organisation is about attracting more and more people that share those values.

At The Physio Co we use our four core values to attract new team members by sharing and referring to them at every possible opportunity.  Potential new TPC team members already understand how important our values are before they even apply.  In most cases, one of the reasons why they apply is BECAUSE of our values.

The Physio Co core values are in many spots on our website, in our painted picture of 2012, used in recruitment and stories are told of TPCers living our values at To The Point every single day. Our core values are even No.2 on the list of the Top 57 reasons to work at The Physio Co!

Like attracts like.  Are you using core values to attract more culture-fits for your team?

Core values for recognition #1

Recognising team members for living your core values is one of the easiest and most powerful ways to reinforce and grow a strong family culture.

At The Physio Co, we have an email newsletter, TPC Talk, that hits the inboxes of our team each fortnight.  Every edition of TPC Talk has an example of someone being recognised for living one of The Physio Co core values. An example:

LIVING THE TPC VALUES

Value - Respect Everyone: we are generous with our time to help others

Who lived it - RJ

How - RJ came to work for a day in the middle of his week off to make sure we all got paid on time.  Thanks RJ, EVERYONE is pleased with the outcome!

Core values for recognition, start using them today..

What’s TW up to? Jan 16-23

In short, here’s my week.  I’m…

Welcoming - 2 new physios to The Physio Co family on Tuesday morning.

Attending - My monthly Entrepreneurs’ Organisation (EO) forum meeting on Tuesday night.

Reading - Pricing with Confidence, by Reed Holden & Mark Burton.  (This one is required reading for The Physio Co’s leadership team this month)

Training - There are 17 weeks to Ironman Australia.  This week I’ll be spending 6.5 hours on the bike, 3 hours in the pool and 4.5 on foot.

Learning - How to use iMovie to create Culture is Everything TV.

Recruiting - A positive & super-organised Support Office Coordinator for our South Melbourne office.

Loving - watching our nine month-old, AW, fine tune her crawling technique.  She’s on the move! 

Core values for recruitment #1

The right people into your team, the wrong people out and everyone into the right spots are some of the keys to building a strong family culture.  But how do you attract the right people?

In my experience, core values are the building blocks of a strong family culture.  At The Physio Co (TPC), we use our four core values as one of the most important criteria for attracting new team members.

The core values are used in our job ads to attract the right applicants (and repel the wrong ones!). Potential TPCers need to let our recruiters know which of our core values fits them best and why. 

If you’ve got core values but aren’t using them for recruitment you might be missing a huge opportunity.

FYI - To see a current TPC job ad live on Seek.com.au, click here.

The 2 most important words in business

On the 6th anniversary of his time with The Physio Co family, I received an email from one of our longest-serving team members.  The email ended with: “…from the bottom of my heart, THANK YOU.”

Yesterday, at our daily huddle, I individually thanked each member of The Physio Co support team for choosing to be a part of The Physio Co.  Every day, they come to work and do their very best.  For that, I am very grateful.

To you, the reader of this post: thank you.  Thank you for taking the time in your busy day or night to follow this blog.  I am very grateful.

“Thank you” are the two most important words in business (and probably in life).  I use them as often as I can. How about you?

PS - Here’s what I learnt from my Zappos experience.

PPS - If you’d like these daily posts on culture, leadership & happiness to land in your inbox, click here.

Why ‘maybe’ must always be ‘NO’ for cultural fit.

To maintain a strong company culture, selection is as much about keeping the wrong people out of your team as it is about getting the right people in. Here’s why..

At Zappos, people that don’t fit their culture are known as ‘polluters’.  I love the simplicity of this term because I’ve seen it first hand.  When the wrong people join a team, very quickly they start to pollute and dilute the very culture that you’ve worked so hard to create.

At The Physio Co (TPC), we have a firm belief that before selecting a new team member, there must be a very clear ‘YES’ for cultural fit from at least two existing TPCers. A ‘Maybe’ from either interviewer is an automatic ‘No’. 

Selecting the right people is a critical task that leaders must nail. Near enough isn’t good enough. Are you disciplined enough to say no to every maybe you meet?

PS - Interested in what exactly is ‘culture-fit’?  See this post..

PPS - Want to receive these blog posts in your email? Click here