Culture [kuhl-cher]
noun: A way of thinking, behaving, or working that exists in a place or organization (such as a business).
Company culture is important. Super important. If you don’t understand just how important, you haven’t worked at a company with a great one. (Or a lousy one.)
Communication strengthens relationships, and it’s through these relationships that culture is expressed. That’s why company events and off-sites are so essential. The bonding they encourage forms deeper connections, which, in turn, strengthen everything the culture is based on – traditions, values, traits. Employees who care about each other work better together.
Think about how you communicate with the people on your team and in your company. In today’s offices, with distributed teams across the globe, we often don’t have the luxury of just walking up and saying hello. This inevitable lack of face time leads to more impersonal forms of communication, like email. And over time, a disconnected feeling grows and it affects culture.
Company culture is rooted in the ways teammates and coworkers communicate.
The intersection of chat and culture
So, if you can’t be together, you’ve got to replace that feeling of being together. A great way to do this – drumroll please – is with group chat. Yep, group chat influences company culture because it encourages communication.
How does group chat work its magic?
- It’s fun. Features like emoticons and .gifs allow you to express your personality, which makes it easier for people to get to know you. Not all communication is so vitally important, or needs a heavy-handed, carefully-crafted email treatment. As the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words… and a well placed emoticon is worth at least 500. (Rimshot.)
Pro tip: Grab an emoticon or create your own! With Hipchat, for example, you can add loads of custom emoticons. Like, you can add your teammates’ faces… and make chat even more fun.
- It’s easy. Group chat provides an opportunity to build relationships that might not exist without group chat. How’s that, you say? Because it’s simple to create new rooms for anything – fans of The Wire, old school hip-hop, daily quote club – it’s easy to form like-minded groups. These avenues grease the wheels of communication, help form connections, and augment company culture.
- It’s immediate. Group chat reduces the friction of communicating. It’s very satisfying – even thrilling – to work with teammates who respond with quick answers, files, and docs. That quick accessibility – and the jazz of having a question answered quickly – positively impacts cultural bonds because working together is exciting and delightful. Things are getting done, and it feels good.
- It’s automate-able. Another way to make communicating with group chat more efficient, fast, and freakin’ cool is with bots. That’s right, robots. Group chat tools have the ability to integrate with super-cool bots that can perform all sorts of tasks for you, saving you time and making work more fun in the process.
A good team has solid chemistry, and this type of quick, fun, and easy communication influences team chemistry. As you get to know the people you work with, it becomes easier to work together and get more stuff done.
A peek into a team chat rooms
If you can laugh together, you can work together.
– Robert Orben
And let’s face it: a well-timed emoticon is a great way to laugh with your team. The bonds we build with our teammates over even trivial things makes our work feel less like… well, work.
Attracting and retaining talent, fostering community and relationships, and dictating overall company direction – all of these elements are rooted in your company’s culture. Make sure it’s a strong one.
If your team hasn’t started using group chat yet, there’s no time like the present. Check out Hipchat and see why already use and love it – besides the fact that it’s free!