Ping Pong and Ice Cream

What flavor is your ice cream?

So right now you are thinking, “what does ping pong and ice cream have to do with work culture?”

Everything.

You may have heard me make the comparison that work culture is like an ice cream sundae.

The ice cream is the real stuff, the humanity of your work culture. Things like psychological safety, honesty, belonging, feeling valued, and the overall well-being of your team.

The syrup and sprinkles are common benefits. Things like health care, 401ks, paid time off, and stock options.

The whipped cream and cherry on top are the unique perks. Things like bean bag chairs, taco Tuesdays and yes, ping pong tables. These are superficial gimmicks that, when you don’t have the previous two ingredients, don’t mean anything.

Basically, if you are putting ping pong ball-shaped sprinkles on poo-flavored ice cream, it’s still just poo.

What’s a great recipe for a delicious work culture sundae?

Let’s start with the ice cream.

What flavor is your ice cream? And what makes for a good ice cream anyway?

Ice cream comes in a million flavors and there are many ways to make it. There’s standard, grocery store ice cream which can be amazingly delicious and gourmet ice cream which is delicious and extra. (if you’re saying “What the what?” let me explain…)

Grocery store Ice cream is created by genuinely caring about your team. An environment of trust is created. The team’s needs and values are made a priority. People feel inspired, connected, listened to, and a sense of belonging. All of that can be accomplished with no budget. The behaviors of leadership can create this basic and delicious ice cream.

Gourmet ice cream is created when you invest in personal development trainings for the team, hiring a full time Chief Happiness Officer, and designing a physical work space that reflects the values of the company and fosters work flow for the team.

The thing about ice cream is you cannot skip this ingredient when making an ice cream sundae. If our ice cream is humanity, feelings, and emotions, we can’t avoid it just because these things make us uncomfortable or because we feel it’s not appropriate in the workplace. If you try to skip it, you’ll just end up with bad tasting ice cream and a toxic culture.

If you aren’t addressing the needs, values, stress, and well-being of your team, you could have a thousand ping pong tables and it wouldn’t matter.

Now don’t @ me if you have a ping pong table or a cappuccino machine in the office. There is nothing wrong with doing fun things for the team, but if that is ALL you are doing towards creating an engaging work culture, then you only have a cherry and no ice cream. If the team is working in fear, then free tacos on Tuesday doesn’t matter. You can’t call that a sundae.

You can’t START with the cherry on top.

Now I can go on and on and beat this metaphor into oblivion, but you get the idea.

If you are looking to improve your existing culture, start with what’s the most important: the ice cream. Ask your team what is working, what isn’t, and then listen.

This is the perfect way to start creating an amazing custom work culture sundae.

Need help making that ice cream?