65. FIVE Ways to Create a Subculture at Work that People Cannot Resist - with Prina Shah

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Hello and welcome to this episode of Ways to Change Your Workplace with Myself Prena Sharp, where we uncover today how you can find ways to optimize your organizational culture.

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Hello and welcome to this solo episode of Ways to Change the Workplace with Myself Prena Sharp. And today I want to talk to you about ways to create a subculture at work. So by now you would have listened to the episode with Brendan, where we go into detail or some elements of detail about how to create positive change in your workplace. And we talked about tapping into the right subcultures in your workplace. So I thought for this episode, I'd elaborate on what a subculture is and how to create your own frigging subculture as well. Because that's exactly what I've done in the past when I work in corporate. But before I begin, I need to outline what work culture is. So this might be a memory refresh for you, or if you don't know what a work culture is, let me tell you. A work culture or work culture refers to the values, beliefs, behaviors and practices that shape the environment and experience of working within an organization. It includes the shared expectations and norms that govern how employees interact with each other, how employees interact with leadership, and how employees interact with clients or customers. Work culture can be influenced by a variety of factors such as the organization's mission and values, the leadership style of management, the level of collaboration and teamwork within the organization, and the degree of work life balance that is encouraged or discouraged. A positive work culture is one that is supportive, inclusive and fosters growth and development for its employees. It can also therefore then contribute to increased job satisfaction and productivity when a work culture is good. That's work culture 101. What is a subculture? So my degree I studied a Bachelor of Science in Sociology and Social Psychology, and that's when I first came across the concept of subcultures. So a subculture is a group of people within a larger culture that differentiate itself from that larger culture. Subcultures can be seen as a way for people to express their identities and connect with others who share similar values and interests. Subcultures often develop their own language, dress, and other cultural markers that distinguish them from that larger culture. Subcultures can also be a source of conflict with the larger culture as they may challenge or resist dominant values and beliefs. Yes to that, I say, because you know, from a workplace perspective, I'm all about finding good ways to change the workplace. Subcultures at the same time can also influence the larger culture by bringing in new ideas, new values, and new behaviors into that mainstream society. And that's what I want to focus on today for the purpose of this episode. So an example of uh subculture, I want to talk to imagine teenagers, the youth subculture first off. Most teenagers love music, and pop music is the mainstream, which is why yeah, it's called popular music. However, if you look at teenage subcultures throughout time, we've had subcultures of music, subcultures of punk music, the emo scene, as well as hip hop subcultures. So these are offshoots or splinter groups, you could even call them of that popular culture of music. So why create a subculture? It's a form of standing out, it's a form of being true to your values. So for example, when I worked in corporate and managed large HR teams, I created a subculture of the A Team. My team was one which people were frothing at the mouth to join. I was really intentional about creating this subculture, you see. HR, as you know, has a bad reputation as the puppet of the executive, as a puppet of the leadership, and just being one-sided. I won't have bullshit on that. I was intent on creating a HR team of employee advocates for all. I needed to rebrand my team, and that is exactly what I did. So let me show you the secret recipe of how I did this. The secret recipe of how I created my own subculture at work. So to create this new HR team, a different way of a HR team, we had shared rules of belonging. One of the rules of belonging I will share with you. It was that we would fully show up and for whatever reason, if we couldn't, we would tell each other and we'd have each other's backs. That was we had shared rules of belonging. Number two, we needed to understand the issues firstly. As a team, we worked out the issues with traditional HR teams and how we could try our best not to fall back into those same traps. You see, without understanding issues, most cultures keep on falling back into old habits. So by understanding the issues of traditional, you know, HR teams, we really got to understand what those issues were so that we would never ever fall back into those traps again. That was the intention. As a team, we worked on what we would never ever ever tolerate. That was so powerful. So by doing this, it gave us clarity on our values and it really helped with decision making when things really hit the fan. Another thing that we did to create a good subculture within my workplace is we learnt the rules so we could break them. Not illegally, of course, and I would never ever tell anyone to wait or break workplace rules illegally. But who is to say that I, as the head of organizational development, should always go to the important meetings? My consultant that reported to me was very capable, and I decided that he could attend meetings for my behalf and he'd report back to me. That was one of the changes that I made in terms of rule breaking in the hierarchy that I worked in. Oh my gosh, it ruffled feathers initially, but then people got used to the new way once they saw that I was across everything. So my consultant would report everything back to me, and I had all of the information nonetheless. So my clients never felt that they were at a loss. If anything, they had me as well as my consultant and the rest of my team supporting them, so added value. The other thing I did, which I was really intentional about, was to have team development sessions every quarter. For my team to be able to bond with each other to learn new skills beyond that of the vanilla workplace HR person, and you should see where the people who used to report to me have now gone to, they are leaders in their field, they are change makers, they are go-getters, and the people who are now creating subcultures at their workplaces. So guaranteed, once you start doing this and creating your own subculture at your work, it's going to have that flow-on effect, and it's such a beautiful thing. It can be done. So, my questions to you are how can you create a new subculture with shared rules of belonging? How can you understand issues in relation to your current culture in order to create a new subculture? How can you determine what you will never ever ever tolerate? How can you learn the rules so that you can effectively weave your way around them? And how will you ensure that your subculture is effectively reviewed and nurtured every quarter at least, whether it be through team development, through upskilling, through meaningful learning? How? So let me know how you go with creating your subculture at work because I really want to find out what you're going to do in creating amazing ways to change your workplace. Now, I hope I've given you plenty of tips to go forth and prosper to create your subculture within your workplace. Remember to subscribe to the Ways to Change Your Workplace podcast. And I'm gonna see you in the next episode. If you like this episode, check out the show notes and sign up for my newsletter. That will help your workplace to be less shitty. It's full of novel ideas, good food for thought. And if you like this episode, pass it on to at least two people who will benefit. That's your good deed done for the day. Also, remember to subscribe to the Ways to Change Your Workplace Podcast via your podcast provider. And I will see you in the next episode.