City of Darwin is on a journey to map and grow our constructive work culture.
Working with our consultants Human Synergistics, we conducted an all-staff survey to identify the behaviours that shape our working interactions.
More than 60 percent of our staff responded to the survey, which gave us a good picture of how our existing culture plays out in our work.
As a result, City of Darwin is working on three main approaches: Leadership Development, Culture Planning, and Telling our Stories.
The program started with our executive team, and will move through a program for middle managers, and then create options for flexible
set-of-skills development modules for all staff.
Some aspects of the program are challenging and stretch individual capabilities with self-reflection and 360 degree feedback tools.
Other components take a more lighthearted approach through role-playing and team building activities.
Achieving improvements is most satisfying when we recognise good results as they happen.
Every team across our diverse organisation is building a Team Culture Plan, to identify just one to three changes to make a difference this year.
Team Plans include ideas like one day staff swaps to build understanding and cooperation across teams, allocated creative thinking time on
‘out-of-the-box Wednesdays’, and a range of skills development activities around having constructive conversations.
To complement our Team Plans, an Organisation Culture Plan, as well as a Culture Calendar of activities and events, are in development.
The calendar captures and extends on our existing Workforce Health and Wellbeing Program and our Darwin Green Office activities, all of which contribute to our overall safety, good health, energy and productivity.
More frequent sharing of good stories right across City of Darwin has started to make connections and increase our pride and motivation.
Since late last year we have begun using our Intranet to tell stories like ‘Day In the Life…’ of staff members from our indoor and outdoor workforces, highlighting their work, safety and community achievements.
At the end of the year, the stories will be complied so we can look back on our achievements and on the fabulous array of different jobs we do.
There are some great photos that go with the stories and bring them to life.
Our vision for Darwin is to grow a tropical, liveable city that creates opportunity and choice for our community.
By working on our culture, we are energising our workforce to make a real difference.
