In any organization, the most crucial aspect of ensuring success is complete commitment from the ownership and/or senior management. This is even more critical when an organization attempts to define or modify its workplace culture. When trying to effect a change in the culture of your organization, it is important to identify your core values and honor those values in every aspect of your business and services.

Recently, dedicated professionals in many industries, from critical cleaning and contamination control to industrial hygiene and construction, have been striving to establish workplace cultures that demonstrate their core values: the health and safety of their staff. One example of this commitment is ‘green’ technology, a trend that has corporate executives, small business owners and employees alike competing to develop technologies, facilities, and products that keep workers — and the environment — healthy.

According to Jeffrey Immelt, the chief executive officer of General Electric, “the opportunity to provide environmental solutions is going to be one of the big four or five themes of our generation of business leadership.” Concern for the health and safety of workers and the environment has made a ‘green’ culture one of the most highly sought-after competitive advantages in business. In order to succeed in this, however, owners and senior management must develop a vision for a healthy workplace, build an effective team to implement that vision, and dedicate the necessary time and energy to making sure it is a success.

The personalities of the owners/senior management are also important to understand when implementing a cultural change, since defining a culture fundamentally requires the adaptation of workers’ attitudes and behaviors. It is important for senior staff to remain humble and ask for advice throughout their pursuit of any major cultural overhaul. Always make time to take a step back, evaluate the status of your culture, and absorb feedback on how to improve it.

Finally, it is necessary to communicate your culture, values, and ideas at every possible opportunity. The more effective a senior staff is at educating people — inside and outside the company — about their efforts to achieve a healthy and safe workplace culture, the more solid and stable the culture becomes.

So why haven’t all businesses successfully achieved a healthy and safe workplace culture? Defining your culture takes time, and implementing that culture takes even longer. Patient persistence is essential to this process, but many owners/executives lose focus on culture as they work to manage day-to-day tasks. Without the senior staff’s complete commitment to creating a successful culture, however, a business is sure to experience debilitating — if not disastrous —repercussions in every aspect of their short- and long-term goals.

Scott H. Lawson, M.S., is the President of The Scott Lawson Companies (www.slgl.com) located in Concord, NH. He can be reached at 603-228-3610 or at scott@slgl.com.