We send signals – sometimes subtly and at other times explicitly – to express our thoughts about a person’s behaviour. Photo: TrainingFolks.
As new working methods and technologies continue to evolve, Michelle Gibbings asks whether your organisation’s culture is flexible enough to keep up with these fast-changing trends.
According to PWC’s annual Global CEO Survey, 45 per cent of chief executives believe their organisations won’t be viable in 10 years if they stay on their current path.
The pressure to keep up, perform, outperform and reinvent is never-ending.
In this race to succeed, it’s imperative to consider whether your organisation’s culture is helping or hindering this process.
When you enter a new work environment, you quickly learn the accepted way to behave.
Behaviour that does not align (or appears not to align) with the accepted culture can be shunned and ridiculed.
As tribal creatures, we quickly categorise people who don’t conform to what we deem to be the accepted way of behaving.
We send signals – sometimes subtly and at other times explicitly – to express our thoughts about the person’s behaviour.
So much so that, over time, they learn what they must do to ”fit in” and be part of the culture. This organic approach to culture isn’t good for them, you or the workplace.
The problem with letting organisational culture grow organically is that it doesn’t create a workplace based on belonging, where people are valued for their uniqueness and different needs are accepted.
We are genetically wired to be part of a group. To survive, we need to feel we belong, and being part of a team is good for us. It can also motivate us to go beyond what we think is possible.
In his book Emotional Success, American psychologist David DeSteno explains how being part of a team, even one made up of strangers, can lead people to persevere longer than when they weren’t part of a team.
He recounts a study by Stanford psychologists Gregory Walton and Geoffrey Cohen, who researched how being part of a team impacted perseverance.
In their research, they used students as the study participants.
Professor DeSteno wrote: “Knowing they (the students) were part of something – having a goal that they knew was shared by a group and to which they could contribute and be valued – pushed people to work hard and resist immediate pleasures.”
I’ve frequently seen how one person’s ideas are improved by another and how we generate, debate and secure our best ideas when we are in a group.
Often, it’s when we come together that we perform at our best.
When you reflect on past years and ask people what they miss about work, it’s not the commute or the need to get dressed up to go into the office.
What they miss are the connections and interactions – the banter, the laughs, the conversations with their friends at work, and the opportunity to come together and create, design and debate ideas.
Bringing belonging and meaning to your work matters, so paying attention to how your team forms and connects is critical.
You want to consciously create the culture that enables you and your team to be at their best.
Having an effective culture takes time and effort. It starts with identifying the current state and detailing the desired future state.
From there, you can determine the gap and take the steps to secure an optimal team culture.
Remember, when you are immersed in an organisation’s culture, you can easily overlook its negative impacts because, for you, it’s just ”the way things are done around here”.
It’s essential, therefore, to dig into the culture and be open to seeing and hearing from your colleagues and team members as to what’s working and what’s not.
Changing culture doesn’t happen overnight. It is built slowly over time. Consequently, your action plan needs to focus on the long term, and you will want to have activities continuously happening.
The best progress is secured when you are deliberate and consistent.
In team meetings, you can use reflective practices to identify where and how members have progressed.
Also, establish core rituals in the team whereby members are encouraged to focus on what they can do for others and share learnings, opportunities and challenges.
A crucial part of this is cultivating an environment where relationships matter. To make this happen, embrace the opportunity to lead by example.
Above all else, make the connections at work meaningful and help your team find meaning in its work.
People are more engaged at work and more motivated to do their best when employing their strengths.
Over the past 30 years, research has shown that a strengths-based approach leads to greater work satisfaction, engagement and productivity.
Leaders are crucial in bringing strengths to life, for themselves and their team members. It starts with the leader understanding their strengths and using them at work.
The next step is for the leader to help their team members appreciate the strengths they bring to their role and to recognise and value their colleagues’ strengths too.
When this happens, it contributes to a sense of progress, elevates connection, and positively impacts the team’s culture.
The working world is challenging for many people on many fronts. So, as you focus on building your team’s connection and elevating its culture, recognise the emotional load your team members may be carrying.
You want to encourage the members to manage their energy and to give themselves time to rest, reflect and recharge.
To make sustained progress and have a healthy and thriving culture, you will want to ensure you and your team members’ health and wellbeing come along for the ride.
Michelle Gibbings is a Melbourne-based workplace expert and an award-winning author. She’s on a mission to help leaders, teams and organisations create successful workplaces – where people thrive and progress is accelerated. Contact her at [email protected].
