The best companies I've worked with have had great workplace cultures. Management in these companies understand that happy team members are more productive and less likely to jump ship the next time an opportunity arises elsewhere.
Whenever I speak to anyone about workplace culture, I often end up pointing them to a great Harvard Business Review Blogpost by Nilofer Merchant titled “Culture Trumps Strategy, Every Time.”Compare an organization with happy, motivated people to a similar-size organization filled with demoralized walking dead, and it immediately becomes clear why a positive workplace culture drives success.
If you're a budding entrepreneur hoping to start the next billion dollar company, you should read the Merchant post and other resources about workplace culture before you even have your first business card designed. If you're a manager, you need to be aware that you are a key driver in defining the culture within your organization. Speak to anyone who's worked for a few years and they'll have stories about managers from hell who were the impetus behind staff calling in sick and eventual mass exoduses.
In a previous Blog post titled "How to Use a Learning Management System to Support Your Workplace Culture," we looked at how changing the wording of system prompts and interface labels can create learning environments that more closely reflect the culture you are attempting to create and promote. Textual communication, however, is only one tool to support culture; the visual design of the learning environment is equally important.
In branding visually your learning management system (LMS), you should think beyond simply being faithful to corporate colors and placing a logo at the top left-hand corner. Imagery including illustrations, photos, and icons can enhance the environment and help eliminate the preconception that your learning management system is just another boring piece of business software. Most importantly, these visual elements can create a more pleasant place to learn.
