How to use the calendar to your advantage with your staff culture, Part 2

Last week, I shared a tip to take advantage of the calendar as you think about staff culture. Being purposeful and deliberate about taking advantage of where human minds are by virtue of the season, time of year or rhythm of work makes anything you do easier and more likely to stick or register more deeply with the team.

As a school-based person for the last ten years, that's what comes to mind, but any of these could be adapted for the start of a new quarter, calendar year, or even month (for example, in a setting where there are monthly sales goals). Think about what works for your organization and where people's heads are at, and then plan from there.

Here are some ideas that will help your staff culture regardless of timing.

A team analogy to use as a reference point on an ongoing basis. When leading a team, having a strong example of a widely known team in pop culture is fantastic: it is engaging, often brings some fun to the learning, and opens itself up for countless analogies and lessons that can help the team function more effectively. It has the benefit of using an outside example to study what to do and what not to do—and can be easier for teams that having to reflect on their own actions and shortcomings (which is important, but can be a challenging first step).

I've been doing some version of this for years, but since 2007 when I saw my first Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band show, the Boss has been my go-to example. "Be the E Street Band" has been a rallying cry at many places where I've led: their roles are clearly defined (you don't see Max the drummer taking over for Nils the guitarist), their communication is excellent, they have fun while doing their job, and there's a general set list but there's always flexibility to change direction based on the crowd. Most importantly: I am a huge Boss fan, and my passion and enthusiasm comes through in an authentic way. (It also lets me watch Youtube clips of Springsteen concerts for hours all in the name of work!)

The example should be authentic to you—I've been people use sports teams they follow, and I'm working with a leader now who has her leadership team watching Ted Lasso for leadership lessons (which meant of course I then had to watch the show... which I did, which is brilliant. Sometimes work doesn't feel like work!) Doing an intro meeting on the model team, watching a clip, discussing and dissecting what we see in the clip that is an example for your team and generating a list of takeaways generally takes under 2 hours—but yet is a clear example to return to throughout the year as you ask "What would Ted Lasso do?" or my mantra "What would the Boss do?". When the team hits the inevitable bumps in the road, you can go back to a clip that shows how your model team handles it—and gleam lessons learned from there. When new team members join, you can include this as a part of onboarding and then everyone shares the fun, common language referencing a highly successful team.

A rallying cry. This is great for certain times of the year or seasons that demand a short, focused way to remember something. I saw a team use "This year it's our job to keep everyone healthy" in the midst of the pandemic; one of my favorite school leaders always talks about "going slow to go fast" in Quarter 1 (a personal favorite I may expand on at another date!) Some people will use quotes to anchor these ideas (like Frederick Douglass' "If there is no struggle, there is no progress") or a call-and-response (we used to end staff huddles with a version of this where one person would say "Fired Up?" and the team shouts back "Ready to go?"). Sometimes, you may find a rallying cry suits you for a longer period of time—I always like the Fired Up chant, for example! You can mix it up then by having team members "remix" it—come up with a new beat, rhythm or way of doing it. A fun and easy team builder is to do some kind of a chant or cheer competition where you assign everyone a phrase to use ("come up with an improved version of the chant 2.0") or say something like "We need a countdown for huddle—each group will come up with one then we'll vote."

Holidays. Whether minor or major, recognizing holidays is always a nice touch, whether that's a door decorating contest with homerooms, having some cute posters up in the hall, etc. Because the fall can be a challenging time for school staff, especially new teachers, I like to do a Grateful November in celebration of Thanksgiving where there are gratitude chains through the building we add to each day—it helps everyone focus on what's going right at a time in a way that boosts morale going into the holiday. Ugly sweater days around the winter holidays, "dress up as your favorite book character" for Halloween makes it slightly more academic... these little things make a difference. Even made up or holidays which are seemingly unrelated to your workplace can be fun—I tried to bring a cake in to celebrate "Fiscal Year's Eve" before the calendar turned over, and for many years we had an amazing Mental Math tournament around the time of March Madness.

There are lots of little ways to boost staff culture, and the benefit of doing it in sync with the calendar is that people's minds are there already—and it's fun, for you and for them!

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Have you used any of these hacks? What would you add or share? Leave a comment below!