Hello and welcome to Culture Hacker! My name is Elaine Jobson and I live on the beautiful Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Australia with my husband Ben and daughter Jasmin. Originally from the UK, in 2007 we moved to South Africa for 5 years, then onto Malaysia for 2 years and now finally settling in Australia for what we hope will be forever.
It has been my work that has taken us all over the globe having spent 23 years in the fitness industry. I have worked for some great brands and entrepreneurs; like Mike Balfour OBE, founder of Fitness First, Richard Branson’s Virgin Active and more recently Brendon Levenson, founder and owner of Jetts Fitness, where I work today as General Manager of our 200+ club business in Australia.
All of my roles have often involved working directly for the owner/founder of the business in a Senior Executive position, which has allowed me the opportunity to gain experience in many aspects of business; including mergers and acquisitions, business sales, stock market floatation and restructures. I have spent time in operations, marketing and many years in sales having sold over 20,000 memberships and I have also owned a couple of clubs along the way.
The main passion I have developed through my years in business is a passion for people or more namely corporate culture. Where ever success was to be found a great culture was found with it. I have seen down right ugly cultures through to off the wall amazing cultures. I have personally led one of the most profound cultural changes in the industry, that resulted in us being placed and then eventually winning the Deloitte Best Place To Work Award in South Africa.
The reason for me writing this blog is that I am concerned that companies never realise their full potential because they don’t know where to start when it comes to building a great culture. It can often feel overwhelming to embark on cultural change, as it seems to be an enormous amount of work and can take years. I am here to tell you that great results can be achieved quickly and with minimal cost.
Think of it as the Pareto principal of culture change, 20% of your activity will create 80% of your results. For most organisations this is sufficient to gain the benefits that culture has on their performance.
There are many resources out there in business book land to help with culture but they often seem overwhelmingly complicated. Most business executives don’t have time to study lengthy philosophies and complicated business models, they usually need results and they need them fast.
If this resonates with you and your company, then I would like to introduce you to the concept of Culture Hacking. Culture Hacking is about spotting weaknesses in your company’s culture and finding creative solutions that gain momentum. It’s great fun and your teams will quickly see the benefits, which will help you gain support for longer-term cultural change strategies.
I have hacked a lot of cultures in my time and have developed many tried and tested methods for achieving great results fast. I will share with you a number of case studies of what has worked for me, so you can apply these same methods and start hacking your own culture.
So start where you stand, grab the first idea you like and try it. Think of this blog like spaghetti thrown at the fridge, take what sticks and let the rest fall to the floor. I would love to get your feedback on how you do and I’m always happy to answer any questions you may have.