What do Google, Wegmans, Build-A-Bear Workshop, and Zappos all have in common? Recently, Fortune ranked the country’s 100 best companies to work for, and after digging deeper into the data, found that culture was a key consideration for employees of most of the organizations on the list.

This isn’t a new idea, and it certainly shouldn’t come as a surprise. After all, we hear a lot about corporate culture these days — praising organizations like these that have a strong corporate culture and lamenting those that don’t.

Organizational culture is still largely misunderstood. Even the idea of a “good” or “bad” culture is a misconception. Corporate cultures cannot be inherently good or bad, though they may certainly be effective or ineffective in helping you drive the performance you’re looking for.

At its core, culture is just a collectively agreed-upon way of doing things that develops over time as people in the organization learn what works and what doesn’t. What most people describe as a toxic or unsupportive culture is really just a system and way of doing things that, at one time, probably helped the organization thrive. As these behaviors become outdated, they become ineffective — and can derail a company.

Many organizations cling to “what’s always been done,” which constantly pushes against innovation; as a result, earnings and other key performance metrics begin to lag. Those dips can make managers do some interesting things in an effort to restore their companies to greatness. As executives become laser-focused on chasing earnings, they may lose sight of the bigger picture. They become focused on treating the surface-level symptoms, never diagnosing the deeper cultural dilemma.

But as Google, Wegmans, Build-A-Bear Workshop, and Zappos all know, your organizational culture impacts your earnings more than you might think.

The Unexamined Culture Is a Potentially Dangerous Thing

Businesses don’t start out with sluggish or hostile cultures, and they certainly don’t last long that way. Businesses that develop a way of doing things that doesn’t work don’t tend to stay in business very long. When you’re not actively assessing and improving your corporate environment, asking for employee feedback, and making necessary changes to stay relevant in your current operating environment, you’re planting the seeds for future failure.

Organizations with high-performing cultures actively invest in their employees. They encourage their teams to share their opinions and ideas and compensate them generously for their work. Ultimate Software CEO Scott Scherr said it best: “The true measure of a company is how they treat their lowest-paid employees.”

That’s not just a feel-good sentiment — employees who feel supported are more loyal and more motivated to come to work every day. When you take care of your employees by encouraging the right behaviors, you’ll create a positive domino effect that will ripple all the way to your customers.

Culture can also serve as a great competitive advantage. Companies that take the time to understand and proactively shape their cultures are able to evolve to meet the demands of their business environments much more quickly and easily than competitors who leave everything to chance. They perform better in the long run because their employees are aligned with their direction, eager to add value, and willing to get on board with any organizational changes.

Empirical research shows that companies that prioritize culture perform better than those that don’t. So why are so many businesses still stuck in ineffective environments? I suspect that many of these leaders know that their companies’ cultures are negatively impacting performance, but they don’t know how to assess — let alone evolve — the behaviors of their employees and align them with their overarching strategies.

How to Build a More Effective Culture

Ideally, your culture should be top of mind before you’ve even formed your company. Unfortunately, it doesn’t always work that way. If you’re wondering how to steer your company’s culture back on track, it’s not too late.

Take an honest assessment. You must be willing to acknowledge your weaknesses to strengthen your company. By figuring out where your culture has gone sour, you can make needed changes to ensure greater employee satisfaction and, ultimately, reap greater financial benefits.

Start a dialogue with your teammates about your current culture. Encourage them to be candid, then brace yourself for an onslaught of (hopefully constructive) criticism. If they haven’t felt comfortable sharing their opinions before, there may be a lot of pent-up frustration waiting to be aired.

Set your ego aside. Be willing to accept that certain methods that served you well in the past might need to be moved to the corporate “museum.” Recognize that it’s time to do some things differently to succeed in a new business environment.

Admitting that some aspects of your business have gotten away from you is, no doubt, humbling. But there are plenty of talented, capable experts who can help you implement positive changes that will ensure your company’s future success.

Engage your team in the cultural reform. Culture is a collective concept, which means lasting change can’t happen without everyone’s help. Invite your employees to offer input at town hall-style meetings, and ask for feedback throughout the process. You’ll notice a shift in the atmosphere as soon as you start acknowledging and implementing employee ideas.

An effective organizational culture is all about clarity and alignment, and if you do it right, it will help you turn a healthy profit. The organizations that are best able to articulate what they stand for inspire their employees to work hard and dedicate themselves to a bigger purpose.

This article originally appeared on Forbes

Four days with a 4-year-old at Walt Disney World — the thought turned my blood to ice. I had visions of a thousand things I’d rather do… including eat glass. It had been almost 25 years since I’d last set foot in the Magic Kingdom, and although I had many fond memories of Disney World as a child, I also recalled standing in long lines for hours, baking in the hot summer sun.

The fact that Disney persuaded me to change my tune is impressive, but how the brand did it is the truly astonishing part. It all comes down to two things: the experience and intentionality.

Disney was able to take a potential brand detractor and turn me into a promoter — someone who is now singing its praises. Don’t think for a minute that any of this happened by chance. Disney is intentional about its message and the experience it creates for customers.

Here are a few culture lessons your brand can learn from the Disney experience:

Cast Your Team to Tell Your Story

Disney has built a strong storytelling culture. Staff members aren’t employees; they’re “cast members” who tell the Disney story through their roles. From actors portraying beloved characters to operations workers handling in-park logistics, employees execute the Disney vision flawlessly.

Cast members clearly take pride in being part of the Disney brand and understand how their daily activities support the company and enhance the customer experience.

To effectively tell your company’s story through your employees, you must have a clearly articulated value proposition and engage in an ongoing conversation with employees about how their daily work supports that value proposition.

Empower Employees to Paint Outside the Lines

Disney empowers cast members to reach outside their roles to proactively add to the customer experience whenever possible. As we entered the park, some custodial cast members welcomed us by using their brooms and buckets to paint Disney characters on the ground with water.

Suddenly, a fleeting moment in the warm Orlando sun became a special experience. It was invigorating to see that all cast members, regardless of their roles, had the opportunity to deliver joy to customers in their own unique ways.

Encourage your employees to go beyond their job descriptions and find creative ways to engage customers. This will allow your company to deliver exceptional experiences and create moments of delight at every turn.

Use Technology to Your Advantage

Another arrow in Disney’s quiver is the way it has embraced technology to create a seamless, customized experience. After reserving our trip, a welcome box arrived in the mail containing bracelets embedded with chips that allowed us to do everything from enter our hotel room to purchase food in the park.

To us, this technology was a convenience. But to Disney, it provided a treasure trove of data on my family’s behavior, allowing the company to refine its offerings in real time. In short, Disney’s ability to create a seamless customer experience through technology also allows it to maximize revenue.

Technology isn’t always the answer, but you should look for solutions that help you enhance the customer experience while automating whatever you can. This can reduce human error and create an experience that leaves customers in awe.

Surprise and Delight Your Customers

I can honestly say that Disney “delighted” me. The cast members were always engaged in activities that sent a clear, aligned message. They were overjoyed we were there, and they wanted to ensure that all of our needs were met. The company’s intentionality ensures that even the biggest Disney fans leave feeling like they’ve experienced something that exceeded their expectations.

Remember that I did not want to go to Disney World. I was dreading it. Yes, the visit changed my attitude, and yes, Disney even got me to promote the brand. But the coup de grâce was the fact that the experience was so exceptional that Disney secured my loyalty as a customer. We can’t wait to return.

Surprising and delighting your customers doesn’t have to include laser light shows or Peter Pan on a zip line. Just take a look at your customer experience, and ask your team to identify areas that could be enhanced. You’ll be surprised what your front-line folks have to say about how the experience can be improved.

This article originally appeared on Forbes

Every touchpoint with your audience is an invitation to your brand experience. You set the stage for what they can expect, and if it’s appealing, they’ll agree to see what you have in store.

But when you develop a brand image before firmly establishing it within your organization, you create a potential disconnect between your internal culture and the face of your brand. When your brand promise doesn’t measure up to your audience’s expectations, you won’t just disappoint; you’ll also lose their trust and loyalty.

This misalignment is frustrating for employees, too. If they realize during onboarding that working in your organizational culture is nothing like their expectations, you’ll have dissatisfied employees, lower morale, and higher turnover rates.

Your brand experience needs consistency and reliability to win the trust and loyalty of every stakeholder. If your employees are sending mixed signals about what the brand is, current and future customers simply won’t buy in. To deliver on your brand promise at every level, you need to start from the inside out.

Turning Your Branding Inside Out

As my colleague and branding expert Mark Margolis puts it, inside-out branding is about aligning your internal culture with the way you want to be perceived so you fulfill your brand promise naturally. And when customers have faith in your brand, it will breed trust.

Disney is a great example of this. The brand is all about storytelling, and the deeper fans travel into its world, the more they become a part of the story. Unexpected experiences delight park guests, and new technologies are seamlessly incorporated into the old-fashioned storytelling foundation.

This wouldn’t be the case if every employee didn’t behave in a way that supported the storytelling experience, even in small details.

All leaders want to leave consumers with a good feeling about their brand. Here are a few ways to adopt an inside-out branding approach and faithfully deliver on your brand promise:

1. Don’t leave things to chance. Every organization establishes an accepted way of doing things over time — a culture. But many workers can’t even define their company’s culture because it hasn’t been carefully created. This is especially problematic with employees who have customer-facing roles. You need to purposefully choose the culture your organization adopts. Being intentional about what you stand for, what is in bounds and what isn’t, and how you collectively want to be defined will help drive your strategy in the right direction.
2. Include others in the discussion. Culture is a function of group interaction, and you need to approach it this way. Sitting in a room with a small group of leaders will naturally create a culture with time, but it might not be the best fit for your company. Actively involve your staff in the process so everyone agrees on a collective culture.
3. Acknowledge that your culture may need to change. Your current corporate culture might be successful today, but that doesn’t mean it will continue to serve your company as it evolves over time. Continually assess your culture, along with your brand and strategy, and be ready to adapt when it makes sense for your brand message.
4. Ask for help. Culture is a complex and intangible part of your organization, which makes it a difficult concept to grasp. It’s OK to seek experts to help create a culture that drives performance, just as you would to develop a marketing or branding strategy.

Your branding efforts are building up consumer expectations about your company; don’t let them crash and burn. Make sure your company actually embodies the qualities and values you’re claiming — inside and out. If you truly practice what you preach, consumers won’t be able to help but trust your brand.

This article originally appeared on Forbes