Speaker 1: Hi, my name's Wayne Tolmash, I'm a business coach at the Icehouse. Today I'm going to talk about two topics. The first one is how to create a positive company culture, and the second one is key metrics that you really need to focus on within your business. So with regards to creating a company culture, I think the first thing you really need to focus on is really define what your company purpose is, what your vision is, really what you want to be when you grow up, what you want to be known for. A lot of companies will know what they do, but not really why they do it. I think it's really, really important to develop that vision and develop that purpose. Ideally, if you can do that with your staff, that's great. It's not always possible. Once you've defined that, the next really key point is to develop the values, the means to achieving that purpose and that vision, and the values really underpin your culture. It's how you want people to act, how you want people to behave, how you want people to treat each other. A great way to develop your values is actually get your staff involved, so as many of them as possible. Get them into a room and really ask them what sort of company do they want to work for. What will make them come to work? You have your vision, your purpose, that's always there, so you make sure they're aware of that. Really get their input. Hold an exercise and just say, brainstorm some ideas. Get up on the whiteboard. A lot of them will be quite common, respect and trust and professionalism, communication, but really get the team involved and develop a core set of values. A lot of companies will have maybe half a dozen values and then really hold on to those and they become your touchstone for your culture. A really key part of that is you then need to build them into your business. Once you've defined your values and you've got buy-in, you then build it into every aspect of your business. A lot of organizations will have them integrated into their incentive schemes and often they will run programs, monthly programs, where people will be rewarded for showing the behaviors that are aligned with the values. A lot of organizations build it into their recruitment process. When they're recruiting new people who haven't been a part of that process of developing the values, they will actually try and ensure that those people are aligned with the values that that organization has deemed to be really, really important to them. The third really key point is you've got to walk the talk. It really starts at leadership and I know it's a cliché and everything starts from the top, but it's really, really important that the people that are leading the organization are walking the talk and they are the ones that are really being the front of those values. A big part of it and a lot of what comes out in organizations when they go through this process is communication, transparency, really treating the staff well. Some of the best leaders, if you like, who have a fantastic company culture are those ones that are out there every day talking it, breathing it, really, really being a part of that. I think to recap, if you like, you really need to define your vision, define your purpose, define what you want your company to be known for. Define your values, how you're going to work with each other, how you're going to work with your customers, your clients, how you're going to get to where you want to be and lead from the front. Walk the talk and make sure that everybody within that organization is living and breathing those values. I think if you bring those three components together, you've got a really, really good chance of having a very, very positive and effective company culture.