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OPINION
Culture as a catalyst for success
Take the time to define your culture, engage your team, and make this a central part of your operational strategy – the rewards are well worth the effort.
A ccording to ASCE’s 2023 Salary Report , 86.7 percent of civil engineers are satisfied or very satisfied with their job, 66.3 percent are satisfied or very satisfied with their financial compensation, and they report having opportunities for career growth. Although these numbers are optimistic, it’s important to focus on retaining employees throughout the year. Culture is key and firms can build on that by creating avenues that help foster relationships for employees with their peers and encourage people-centered change by providing adequate support and genuine communication to help employees feel seen and valued.
Carlo Lebron, PE
“Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” This famous quote from management consultant Peter Drucker resonates with many business leaders, including me. As a business unit director at SCS Engineers, I have always prioritized maintaining a strong organizational culture, yet I recently noticed something was amiss. Despite solid financial performance, our high turnover rates indicated a disconnect that needed to be addressed. In search of solutions, I turned to Matt Mayberry’s insightful book Culture is the Way . What struck me was not the need for change but the necessity of clearly defining our culture. We needed a framework to guide our efforts and enhance our environment. We accomplished this by:
■ Empowering our team. To start this journey, we empowered our team to help define our culture. We conducted a survey across our business unit, asking employees to describe what they believed our culture to be. The responses were compiled into a word cloud, highlighting common themes: the larger the word, the more frequently it was mentioned. While many of the words reflected a healthy, high-performing culture, we also noticed inconsistencies among different groups. This disparity highlighted a need for clarity. My leadership team and I carefully reviewed the survey results, distilling the feedback into
See CARLO LEBRON, page 10
THE ZWEIG LETTER FEBRUARY 3, 2025, ISSUE 1571
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