For the past 18 months, I’ve been leading DataBank through an amazing journey to define their brand and culture and bring it to life. I’ve had an opportunity to leverage all the processes and tools that have been a hallmark of the BrandFoundations approach, including CultureTalk surveys for archetype discovery, the Purpose-Way-Impact (PWI) model for foundational messaging, and RewardGateway for an online culture hub.
And I’ve now tested this entire approach in the most demanding scenario imaginable: a post-M&A, private-equity-backed venture with 20 locations in 9 US markets and a staff of 300 employees who – in the middle of the project – were thrown into a COVID-induced work from home situation.
Building a cohesive culture in any organization is hard, even when everyone is in the same building. Doing it in across multiple geographies is infinitely harder. Doing it when everyone is suddenly isolated and working from home during a pandemic is unprecedented. If anything was going to test the ability of BrandFoundations’ approach to bring people together and feel like “one culture, one company” this was it.
So far, the results have been magnificent. Employee engagement has never been higher and the number of peer-to-peer recognitions has grown by 5,000% (from an average of 5/month to approximately 250/month)!!! More importantly, DataBank now has a cultural foundation upon which to conduct the integration of its largest acquisition to date: the addition of zColo a competitor that will triple the company in size.
Recently, I was invited to share the story of this work during RewardGateway’s user conference. It’s a great summary of the entire journey we’ve been on and I’m excited to share it (click to view):
