You may be thinking, “Another culture model? Who needs another tool?” Given all that’s out there, the skepticism is well-founded. This one, however, fills a much-needed gap when it comes to culture-building. Design of Work Experience (DOWE) is a concept,…
Culture
Encourage the Quiet to Give Voice to the Sounds of Silence
Are you an introvert or an extrovert? That’s a tricky question. I have a hard time answering it myself. That’s the problem of binary questions — you are forced to choose one or the other. Being quiet is a choice…
How to Avoid These 3 Culture Change Pitfalls
Culture change is a human experience. It’s not just a business imperative, as it has been viewed for decades, as reflected in these expressions: “If we’re going to grow, we have to change the culture” and “This culture is toxic,…
Do Your Subcultures Align Or Undermine Your Company Values?
It can be surprising when you first see the signs of an organizational subculture forming When the company is small, employees are much closer to the central embodiment of its mission, vision, and values, because everyone is working closely together….
Hire For a Mission, Not a Job
“Men wanted for hazardous journey. Low wages, bitter cold, long hours of complete darkness. Safe return doubtful. Honor and recognition in the event of success.” Legend has it that Sir Ernest Shackleton used the copy above in an ad to recruit his…
Build a More Engaged Workforce These 4 Ways
Companies are becoming increasingly concerned with the internal culture of their company these days – and for good reason. Gallup has famously studied and reported on the American workplace reporting that the level of engagement among employees has a huge…
Creativity Thrives When People Move
Feeling uninspired and need a jolt of creativity? Brace yourself. I recently read about a development that’s fascinating … and maybe a little freaky. Researchers found a way to stimulate the area of the brain responsible for creative thought. It turns out…
Do Your Values Just Hang On a Wall?
“I suggest you take another look at your core values as they are not being delivered.” The words were uttered at an exit review by an employee on his way out. This story was told to me by a retail…
The Secret to Productivity May Be Air Conditioning
Call them dinosaur-brains or Neanderthals, there are people in every business who live to make us miserable. They aren’t necessarily actively toxic, but some are so rude, bureaucratic, and/or annoying, your automatic response may be to disengage from them and your work….
3 Ways to Grow a Culture of Creativity and Innovation
Innovation isn’t easy. It requires dedicated time, support from company leaders and often a cost investment, but it can lead to big payoffs. In fact, companies that use collaborative innovation models like design thinking are twice as likely as their peers to…
What It Takes For a New CEO to Make a Successful Transition
There is nothing more exciting than the moment a new leader is announced. Employees Google the new CEO while wondering what they will do to change the organization. A new leader brings new ideas. She or he offers a new…
The 21st Century Way to Getting Your People to Do Great Work
Leading is like parenting — everybody thinks they do a much better job than they actually do. There’s a definite gap between how most executives assess themselves and how their direct reports do. Leaders and their teams seem to be watching two…
The Not So Obvious Reasons Your Teams Are Underperforming
Imagine you are sitting in an airport waiting for your flight. The airport is busy and you are at that low ebb in the day where you are looking for any external stimulus to get you through the boredom. You…
Put Away the Phone. Leave the Office and Start Meeting the People Who Do the Work
Note: The following is an excerpt from the author’s new book, When Leadership Improves, Everyone Wins. Realize that as leaders, we are signal senders. What signal does it send to our people when we stay on the executive floor or…
Is Happiness the Secret to Engagement?
Note: This article is part of an occasional series dedicated to exploring the contribution of human capital assets (people!) to the valuation of a business. Welcome to The New ROI: Return on Individuals. Previous articles in the series can be found here. ∼∼∼∼∼ “A little girl…
The Productivity Advice HR Professionals Should Ignore
Google “productivity advice,” and you’ll see thousands of articles offering tips on how to get more done in a day at the office. Almost every single one of them recommends only checking email at predetermined times to prevent incoming messages…
Sell Your Culture, Not Your Perks
Can we blame people for judging companies on their culture? We all spend such a high proportion of our lives at the office nowadays it’s unsurprising that we care about our working environment. Most conversations on culture inevitably end up…
5 Ingredients for Creating a Successful Company Culture Committee
There comes a time in every HR practitioner’s career where you realize you just can’t drive company culture alone. Modern conceptions of company culture are in a state of transition. For as many companies out there that recognize the importance…
Ready or Not Here Comes Generation Thumb
Talking about millennials in the workforce is so yesterday. Time now to start preparing for Gen Z, or, as Chad Norman calls them, Generation Thumb. This is the generation born after the turn of the century. They’ve never known a…
HR Roundtable: The Value of a Multi-Generational Workforce
In the classic rock anthem My Generation by The Who, lead singer Roger Daltrey screams, “I hope I die before I get old.” He echoed a sentiment of the times, but he never knew that he was also doing what…