Culture Elevator Pitch

Can you describe your team’s culture quickly and easily?

Almost half of younger generations would prefer being unemployed than work in a job they don’t like, a recent study found. They look for and prefer companies with cultures that share their own personal values.

All throughout the news, we see articles about how to keep and retain good, young talent. So we have to understand how to first communicate with that desired talent.

Take a look at job descriptions. What do you see? A long list of tasks and to-dos that the candidate will get to accomplish if they are lucky enough to get chosen for the job. Not too many have information on the team, culture, or work environment. And if they do, they seem to be a bunch of random sentences that sound great to some corporate stiff but don’t really have any true meaning or vision.

Do you even know if you are sharing and communicating your team’s values and culture? If you think you are, is that messaging getting through and being understood?

Don’t freak out, we are going to ensure you get your vision and message across.

Stop thinking you have communicated your team’s culture because those stupid and worthless corporate catch phrases aren’t fooling anybody.

We are going to remove corporate speak and build a short and impactful statement using an idea a lot of businesses are very familiar with.

Most people are well aware of the elevator pitch especially when it comes to sales and products. Most people can easily describe their work, what they produce, and who they serve in just a few short sentences. Even individuals are aware of this term because an elevator pitch is exactly what you give when someone asks you: “Tell me about yourself.”

So let's build an elevator pitch for our team’s culture: a Culture Elevator Pitch.

First, think about your team’s culture, currently. Are people quiet or social? Do people help or are they siloed? Is there a revolving door or do people stay there a few years? Are there parks or restaurants near by for an escape at lunch? Ask yourself and your team as many questions as you can. Brainstorm and get multiple inputs.

Think about your team and business as it is, not as you wish it would be and definitely not as you think others want it to be. Do not just say things that match the trending social media topics. Be honest of where you are right now.

Second, are there areas you want to change, wish you could be better at, or start to get too. Add those topics now, but make should you differentiate current and future state.

Future state can only be added to the Culture Elevator Pitch if you are currently working on it. Most people are well conditioned to know that when they hear a company ‘wants to do something’ that they are most likely never going to do it. So you need to be actively taking steps in order to talk about it here. You have to overcome this preconceived notion otherwise people will think you are lying to them. (Crazy, I know.)

Third, describe your team’s culture using the first two steps above. Try to keep it short and concise. Five sentences is almost too many, and I’ve heard some excellent pitches in three.

Focus on current state, that is who you are. If you are truly working toward a future state, you may add it. Keep in mind if you do not hit it, and someone hangs on that sentence, they will be very upset when the realization sets in, making things worse not better.

Check to make sure you are not using any corporate bullsh*t. Do people snicker? One example, still stuck in my head, is when a business used the word ‘delight’. People couldn’t get past that word, and the message got lost.

(The term ‘family’ is another to avoid, as a business will not treat their employees like they would their family members. This is a whole, complex topic on its own…)

Now, go out and use your new Culture Elevator Pitch when people ask, as you describe your team or business, and on job descriptions.

Yes, you can have different Culture Elevator Pitches for the business and your team or department. Sometimes to build team or department moral in a bad company, you will want to work with the individual teams so that they can rally behind their own ‘personal’ cultures.

The sign of a good overall work environment is when team pitches are similar to the business pitch. Noticing them being different is a red flag to larger issues, and something that could highlight areas to problem solve going forward.

Having a Culture Elevator Pitch will help to bring the team together. Making it simple and understandable will give confidence to others that you believe in it. Being able to share it with “outsiders” like: suppliers, customers, and candidates/employees, will help them to understand who they are working with and make better discussions on future work relationships - like accepting a job offer.

Understand that team culture is a big and important issue. Start off on the right foot by delivering a strong elevator pitch for your culture.