Creating a Winning Company Culture

Organizational culture can be challenging to get right. It’s not always universal, some workplaces have intentional cultures, and others might not even think about culture in their organization (even though it’s likely still in the background). What comes to mind when you think about company culture? For me, it’s football and farming.

Culture in Football

It wasn’t until recently that I became a Cincinnati Bengals fan – after a friend invited me to my first live game. I heard rumors about the Bengals not only being a poor playing team but also a team with a horrible culture. In recent years though, it seems this particular team is breaking that label. They play with character, heart, and a love for each other and the game itself. 

Wondering what led to this big shift in the team culture, I decided to do a little digging. That led me to the discovery that the biggest change was their new, young head coach, Zac Taylor. He was diligently working on changing the culture and performance of the team which ultimately led to him taking the Bengals to the Super Bowl within 3 short years of being named the head coach. 

The Connected Team

Zac has been all about culture since day one. At his introductory news conference, he described his goals on culture and the concept of being a connected team, “We’re goin​​g to be a connected team. This business and this sport is all about the people, and we want people that are all pulling on the same rope, with a shared vision…We want to bring great things to this city and to this franchise. We do that by having a connected team and everyone in this building being on the same page and sharing the same vision, and we will accomplish that. I think everybody wants to be a part of something that’s bigger than themselves.”

I was drawn to Zac’s reinvented Bengals team and their journey because of the strong emphasis we like to place on culture at Bullen Ultrasonics. As President of the company, I make sure to spend 1:1 time with every new employee during their orientation process to teach them about our Core Values of excellence, humility, integrity, and teamwork and specifically how these values translate with each other and with our customers. Like Coach Taylor, we want to make sure we’re a connected team that shares the same vision and goals.

Culture Through a Farming Story

During these early chats with new employees, I like to begin by explaining the meaning of company culture in manufacturing through a story:

One day while working, I got a surprise text from my friend, Dave, asking if I would like to join him for lunch. Shortly after he sends me the invite, he adds, “Might have to eat lunch on the go! I’m a little behind in the fields right now…do you mind tagging along in the combine?”  

Um, did I want to ride in a combine harvester? Yes! So I met Dave with lunch at one of his experimental corn fields where he explained its purpose is for them to test and compare different seeds. As we cut through rows and rows of corn, he showed me where different types of seed begin and end. I was wondering – how different could corn really look? But as I watched closely, I began to notice the slight difference between the corn stalks, mostly in their color and size. 

Finishing a bite of my lunch in that tiny buddy seat of the combine, I asked Dave, “Outside of what you can’t control like sun and rain, what’s the most important ingredient to growing a strong crop?” 

He didn’t take long to reply. I thought for sure he would say, seed quality, but his answer surprised me, “Hands down, it’s dirt! The quality of the soil is the number one predictor of the quality of the crop. If the soil is toxic, the seed quality is irrelevant. If you have rich, fertile soil, you are almost guaranteed to have a flourishing crop, regardless of the seed quality. You can tell a lot about a farmer based on the condition of their soil.” 

Pausing mid-bite, I was suddenly struck as I realized that Dave’s predictor for a flourishing crop was tapping into a universal truth about culture. I had just recently moved back to town and taken on the role as President. It had been 6 years since I last worked at Bullen and a lot of things had changed in that time. Our identity and company culture had been on my mind a lot lately in those early months of the new role. 

Dave and I continued talking but I never forgot what he said and when I got back to the office, I started breaking it down more. I found that Dave, unknowingly had helped lead me to a path I had been looking for to improve Bullen’s company culture and help our employees flourish. 

The word Culture is rooted in Latin, coming from the word “cultra,” meaning cultivation or tending, and the verb “colere,” meaning to cultivate or to till. Originally, the term was used to talk about exactly what Dave had described, the cultivation of soil and crops. Over time, the meaning expanded beyond its agricultural roots and began to take on a meaning related to the improvement of the human mind and eventually morphed into the definition as we know it today – a term describing the customs, social institutions, and achievements of a certain group of people.

All organizations (even divisions of organizations) have unique cultures (soil) that either allow people (seeds) to flourish and thrive or struggle. 

You can place bad seeds into fertile soil and they will still grow, but even the best seed planted into toxic soil will not grow. In healthy company cultures, where people are flourishing, other people will inevitably start flourishing as well through training, mentorship, apprenticeship, etc (like cross-pollination in the fields).

Creating Our Culture

How do you create a healthy culture in your organization? At Bullen, our journey started with a simple principle: Cultures, healthy and toxic, are defined by the quality of the interactions happening every moment within an organization. If someone is treated with respect and love, then they will understand that this is the expectation within the culture. If someone acts in an untrustworthy or disrespectful manner, then it erodes a healthy culture. You could have the best customers, the best strategy, and the best technology but if you are battling a toxic culture, you will struggle to succeed.  

Over the last 10 years, our team has worked diligently to foster a company culture of trust, respect and love. I like to think our farming metaphor helps everyone put into perspective how much impact an individual has on our community. Our culture is far from perfect but we strive to create an environment where employees feel comfortable to share concerns, have permission to speak truth to power, and are willing to both give and receive feedback. 

Fertile crops thrive by having rich soil, weathering challenges, and cross-fertilization. Strong teams, like Bullen and the Bengals, thrive by challenging one another to grow through love and respect. 

You can learn more about how we’ve developed our Connected Team by forming and nourishing our individual teams here.

Tim Beatty

President, Bullen Ultrasonics

P.S. Anyone who knows me knows that I’m also a huge Cincinnati Reds baseball fan. On a recent trip to the Great American Ball Park to partake in a night of baseball watching and chowing down on a good old, Montgomery Inn pulled pork sandwich, I had the privilege of running into Bengals Coach, Zac Taylor! Not surprisingly, I couldn’t help but thank him for his hard work on transforming the Bengals into a winning culture but also a culture of love. I thanked him for his leadership and, of course, told him I was hopeful for this upcoming season.  WHO DEY!