There’s a phrase about culture that’s said so often it’s almost cliché: Culture eats strategy for breakfast. It’s the people implementing a plan who make the difference. No matter what direction you go or conditions you encounter, culturally strong companies more consistently execute their strategies and overcome challenges. At Medical Solutions, we include cultural considerations in decisions and work to continually build a culture that endures. It’s a key to our success.

The pandemic changed life for all of us. It challenged every business and culture in ways we never imagined.

Remote work, remote teams and having to adjust to changes rapidly can stress a culture to its core. As a healthcare staffing firm, Medical Solutions faced unique challenges as our industry shifted and was strained in new ways. We also learned from another culture challenge: rapid growth. These are some lessons from our culture test.

Industry alignment. At Medical Solutions, we keep our culture central to who we are, and it’s reflected in our work. Our purpose is to connect care. This purpose drives us forward and instructs our culture. Our values center on a dedication to quality that results in a great patient-care experience, a “wow” customer experience and an engaging employee experience. Orienting on quality patient care puts us in alignment with the healthcare industry we serve. When the pandemic placed enormous strain on healthcare providers, it confirmed and renewed our quality focus. There was an emotional compounding effect. More than ever, we wanted to serve our clients and traveling clinicians.

Embed and execute. When cultural values are foundational, they guide to how you operate. Does this decision align with and support the culture we have? Does this decision develop the culture we want?

We execute on culture. It’s not a vague notion on the wall or the intranet. Culture is a component in who we hire, how we train and recognize, how we approach talent management and what we ask of our leaders.

When culture is embedded within the organization, it doesn’t go away during remote work. It challenged us to find new ways to keep it vibrant. Not being together in the same workspace makes it harder to connect interpersonally. We’ve had to take some new approaches to team building and look at the employee experience differently. Even as we implemented remote work, the commitment to quality remained between team members. Companies where all the examples of the culture are hanging on the walls of the office were in some real trouble.

Curating culture during growth. We’ve also had the “good problem” of shepherding our culture through rapid growth. Medical Solutions has grown in revenue and market share, and with that comes the need to find talented employees that fit our culture. One unique aspect of our growth is the nearly 50/50 mix of organic growth and acquisition. We’re thoughtful in how we curate our culture and introduce our values with new employees.

Every time you add a person to a team, it’s a new team. That’s true in the micro and macro. For new hires, our values are both taught and demonstrated through recognition and examples set by others. When we acquire and integrate a new company, it starts with a shared belief in quality. They were acquired in part because they were aligned with our approach to culture, values and business. But we also learn about, adopt and blend their culture. In anthropological terms, think of it as an amalgamation (blending) rather than assimilation (learning or adopting). We become stronger as one.

We have a saying at Medical Solutions: Be the teammate you want on your team. We’re all responsible to one another. We support, depend on and care for each other. We succeed or fail together as one team. Everyone’s opinion matters and their voice is heard. We create the strategy together.

The last two years have shown that a firmly placed cultural cornerstone can endure and aid a company during challenging times. But it must be referenced, leaned on and cared for. In those moments when you’re able to join with another company, an openminded approach to the ways that made them successful can make you both more successful going forward.