# 2.3 Workplace Culture

Positive, inclusive workplace cultures are more likely to be high performing, and in high-trust workplace cultures team members are better able to work together in pursuit of shared goals. A strong culture cannot simply be imposed—all team members must translate words into actions and demonstrate they truly believe in the values they espouse.

# 2.3.1 Intra-Team Communication

Level: Basic

Communication between team members is regular and productive, regardless of whether the team member works on-premise or remotely. All team members communicate with each other on at least a fairly regular basis.

Teams that don’t communicate effectively can almost never be high-performing. High-quality intra-team communication is necessary to keep workflows in-sync and aligned with the needs of the product. Team members should meet regularly to discuss their recent activities and gain insights and advice from each other.

# 2.3.2 Cultural Inclusiveness

Level: Basic

Your team’s work culture promotes the development of an inclusive work environment that is comfortable for diverse team members. All team members are readily included in the team’s work culture, which is devoid of exclusive cliques.

Non-inclusive environments tend to suffer from some combination of low morale, low retention, and/or low quality communication. Inclusivity—which begins with providing new team members with a positive onboarding experience that includes actively reaching out to them—is necessary for teams to be sustainably high-performing.

# 2.3.3 Workplace Stress Factors

Level: Basic

Your team supports job satisfaction by taking action to identify causes of workplace stress. When stressors are identified, both team and company-level leadership provides the team with the support it needs to address the issue.

Excessive stress has a significant negative impact on team performance, and potentially, on the stressed team members’ quality of life. Creating and maintaining a supportive team environment—one in which team members can freely discuss and take action to address stress factors—will result in higher morale, better motivation, and better productivity.

# 2.3.4 Team Bonding Activities

Level: Intermediate

Your team regularly makes time to socialize and engage in team building activities. These activities include both new and remote workers and are effective at promoting team bonding.

Socialization helps teams to work better together. Teams with strong social bonds are more resilient, open, and willing to take risks; for remote workers, socialization can also help to reduce loneliness. To be effective, opportunities for socialization should be deliberately included in the team’s schedule.

# 2.3.5 Level of Psychological Safety

Level: Intermediate

Team members care about each others’ psychological safety. This means that team members trust each other in both formal and informal work settings, and are able to take risks without feeling insecure or embarrassed.

The link between high performing teams and psychological safety is becoming increasingly well-established. Psychologically safe work environments are characterized by high degrees of trust between team members, which is necessary for individuals to engage readily in “interpersonal risk taking”, such as asking for help, providing feedback, etc.

# 2.3.6 Operational Autonomy

Level: Advanced

Your team has a purpose-driven, “self-starter” culture. The team is able to self-organize throughout development in order to efficiently respond to new challenges as they arise.

Collaboration within teams should be largely autonomous and driven by the team members themselves. This means team members should be able to self-organize and leverage their collective creative problem solving abilities to overcome challenges as-needed. Autonomous, self-organizing teams work best in environments in which team members feel a sense of shared purpose.