How To Fix A Broken Team Culture [3 Easy Steps]

It happens way too often. Maybe it’s even happened to you.

You interview for a new role in a new organization (or a new role in a different part of a large organization). You seem to connect with the people, and you definitely connect with the work, so you excitedly accept the job offer. Then you arrive in the new role, and everything is different. 

The people aren’t nearly as warm as they seemed when they were recruiting you. The work isn’t as interesting and meaningful as you thought.

The culture is broken, and you begin to feel that you’ve made a terrible mistake. 

If you’re in an entry-level position in the company, there’s not much you can do except re-polish your resume and look for a better culture. But if you’re in a leadership role—or even an influential team member role—you don’t have to move on quite yet. 

You can fix the broken culture. Maybe not in the entire organization, but you can fix the broken culture in your team.

In this article, we’ll outline the key steps to fixing a broken team culture or at least preventing the toxicity of the companywide culture from infecting your team.

Start With Who

The first step to fixing a broken team culture is to start with who. Apologies to Simon Sinek for his concept of “start with why” here. Sinek is absolutely correct that a sense of purpose and vision matter. He’s correct that people don’t buy into what you do; they buy into why you do it. 

He just doesn’t go far enough. Recent research suggests that the most powerful “why” is actually a “who.” As in, “Who benefits from the work that we do?”

Without being able to clearly identify who the direct beneficiary of the organization’s purpose is, the mission statement often gets relegated to a plaque on the wall and a couple of vague phrases in the distant memory of employees.
However, when employees know who is helped by their work, they become motivated above and beyond even the best-worded mission statement.

In addition, starting with who re-emphasizes a key mentality that you want on the team. You want each team member to know that it’s not about them, their needs, and their purpose. Instead, it’s about the larger team. Giving teammates a source of prosocial motivation also inspires them to be more altruistic overall. That leads to a better culture and better collaboration.

Create Role Clarity

The second step to fixing a broken team culture is to create role clarity. One of the biggest sources of conflict in a team or in a whole organization is a lack of clarity about roles and responsibilities; without a clear and common understanding of who is working on what and when it’s going to be completed, teammates can easily feel like they are the only ones fully committed or that others on the team aren’t as supportive as them. 

Without role clarity, it’s too easy for important tasks to get forgotten and key objectives to be missed. And when that failure happens, blame starts to get passed around quickly because no one actually knows whose failure it was—they just know they don’t want to be left holding the blame.

To turn this around, take the time to set objectives as a team and specify who is responsible for what. You may not be able to choose specific objectives like the projects you’re working on or the budget or deadlines to work inside of. But you can take the assigned objectives, bring the whole team together, and then break them down into smaller parts, making sure to capture who wants to do which tasks.

Once that is set, make sure your team is in regular communication about the progress they are making—or not making—and any pivots that happen along the way. A team that works out loud—broadcasting what they’re doing as they’re doing it—is a team that collaborates well and supports each other.

Build Psychological Safety

The third step to fixing a broken team culture is to build psychological safety. Psychological safety is the extent to which members of a team feel free to express themselves, take risks, and fail in front of others. 

It is marked by the level of trust and respect teammates feel towards each other. When individuals feel they can trust the group, they’re more likely to speak up when they disagree and more likely to offer creative ideas. When they demonstrate respect for each other in the face of disagreement or wild ideas, the trust level increases even further.

The fastest way to build psychological safety is to teach your team civility in their interactions. Make sure they’re taking the time to actively listen to each other and demonstrate that they’ve heard ideas before they give criticism. 

In fact, they should be taught not to criticize ideas entirely but instead to challenge assumptions behind ideas. If you teach them anything, make sure you demonstrate it as well. 

The most given reason for the lack of civility in the workplace is that leaders don’t demonstrate it often enough. So, act out how you teach your team to act.

Foster Open Communication Channels

One of the most important aspects of fixing the broken culture is having clear and open communication. Allow your team members to openly and freely express their ideas and concerns. 

Communication builds trust. The better the communication channel, the less likely there will be misunderstandings about the team’s goals and expectations. To create such a collaborative environment, the leaders should create accessible communication channels.

Some key ways to do that are:

• Conduct one-on-one and group sessions regularly where all the team members can interact and share their concerns and perspectives.
• Create an anonymous feedback channel so team members who are shy or want to talk about the hard stuff at work or other topics they can’t discuss openly can do so easily through it. 
• It’s the era of technology, so employ tools like Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Trello, and Slack to create conducive communication channels where everyone stays updated about each other’s progress.
• Everything should be clear and transparent, and all the task requirements and updates should be clearly communicated.
• The leader should also be very approachable and listen actively to the team.

Celebrate Successes and Milestones

One of the most important motivators in any organization is recognition. People feel like they belong in a place that acknowledges all their hard work and celebrates their achievements. 

When employees feel appreciated, they are more engaged and committed to their roles.

So, make it a regular practice to publicly acknowledge each individual’s efforts and achievements during team meetings or via company-wide announcements. 

This appreciation can also be personalized by offering the employees gift cards or extra time off. Some employers even give out simple handwritten notes of appreciation.

As a team leader, you can also organize an event like a team lunch or a small celebration at work to celebrate the completion of a project or the achievement of a milestone.

Align Values with Actions

Usually, people talk a lot, and most of it does not align with their actions. When there is a disconnect between the values of your organization and the actions, it can cause a lot of distress among team members, and miscommunication can lead to demotivated employees.

These people now look for ways to disconnect or switch to other organizations. However, there is an easy fix: make consistent efforts to ensure that their values and actions are aligned.

To start with, they need to clearly define the core values and align them with the organization’s mission. Values should be part of decision-making strategies and daily interactions. Lastly, they need to be part of the organization’s goal, so the employees have a clear sense of purpose and direction.

Invest in Professional Development

Team culture should also focus on the growth and learning of employees. For that, you may have to invest in their professional development, like enhancing their skills through training programs or developing the employees.

This will not only help them build valuable skills but also make them see that the organization values them and wants to support their careers. 

Wrap Up

Fixing team culture is challenging but, at the same time, quite a rewarding experience. 

With these tips and strategies as part of your organization’s culture, you can create a positive atmosphere where employees feel they belong and are likely to perform better.

If you lead your team through these steps, you’ll help individuals feel engaged and inspired in their work and create meaningful collaboration across the team. You’ll create a pocket of excellence inside your team that keeps the team thriving and keeps the company culture from dragging them down.

Through prosocial motivation, role clarity, and psychological safety, you’ll build a team culture that helps everyone do their best work ever.