Part 2 - How Leaders Can Transform a Toxic Culture into One of Caring and High Performance
Part 2 of 2
By Christine Maassen, MA, CPHR, ACC, MHI Associate
Knowing something needs to change is great but knowing what to do is not always easy. That's where we get stuck, isn't it? I recognize that it can feel daunting. But, in the words of Pema Chodron, “start where you are”. The first step is to acknowledge where we are and be willing to embrace wholeheartedly the muddy path of transformation we must travel. By doing so, we open the door to finding ways forward, even if it initially feels perplexing.
Engaging in this process will open the door to multiple paradigm shifts that provide clarity and reveal options. Understanding what it means to be an employee in the 21st century and grasping how employee well-being is key to business performance will invite a different outlook. Such a journey will also help highlight how leadership behaviours underpin the creation of the organization, more so than any poster on the wall.
As is typically the case on quests of this nature, we anticipate that the journey will lead us back to what was always in plain sight. However, in this instance, the evidence that eludes us is that it's all about connections because we are all hardwired for connection as humans. Too long have we assumed that all business problems could be solved with a spreadsheet. But unfortunately, that is not how it works, at least not always.
Conversations that are sincere, considerate, and occasionally messy foster development, problem-solving, growth, and innovation. Creativity resides in the same space as conversations that make people feel heard and understood and spark high levels of engagement, and we need creativity now more than ever!
In his book The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else In Business, Patrick Lencioni explains that businesses have two requirements to succeed. First, they need to be smart to take care of strategy, marketing, finance, technology and the like. And, they need to be healthy to minimize politics and confusion and create high morale, high productivity, and low turnover. He also adds that health begets and trumps intelligence. Lencioni also posits that one of the reasons this dimension does not receive the attention it deserves is because it is not easy to measure. The great resignation provides a global measure of how unhealthy our current workplaces are, and the impact of this current state of affairs is leaving organizations in a precarious position.
Hopefully, by now, you would like to know where to start.
Here is what has been clear for quite some time: it begins with senior leaders. When senior leaders understand and accept that how employees feel at work is part of their responsibility, everything changes.
The conversations shift and make room for a broader and all-encompassing outlook on the organization and its culture, often resulting in an eagerness to rely on HR teams as transformation partners rather than corporate janitors. Perhaps you are in a senior leadership role, and you read this thinking, "are you kidding me? I already have too much on my plate; there's no way I can take on more." Here's a golden nugget for you: accepting responsibility doesn't imply that one must do it alone. In fact, in addition to using your HR team as a transformation partner, enlisting employees as active participants in this transformation journey is pure magic. The genuine willingness to hear what they have to say and consider their views amplifies and accelerates the transformation in surprising ways. It delivers instantaneous relief for all involved long before the discovery of solutions.
But why does all this matter anyway? Lencioni could not make a stronger case when he said, "The single greatest advantage any company can achieve is organizational health." Either you commit to creating healthy workplaces with all that it implies, or it is only a matter of time before you lose your talent and put the survival of your organization at risk. Full stop.
Consider The Caring Culture Playbook as a blueprint for how organizations can transform a toxic culture into a caring culture. It focuses on creating workplaces that care about mental well-being, a crucial aspect of healthy workplaces in the present day. It is a helpful resource that simplifies the transformation process by breaking it down into manageable steps.
The myriad positive outcomes that result include lower absenteeism, reduced sick leave, decreased long- and short-term disability claims, decreased employee turnover, and increased employee loyalty. All of these factors are indicative of an organization's health and have direct or indirect effects on both the top and bottom lines.
Through more than a decade of work with organizations large and small, one of the most important lessons we've learned is that there is no cookie-cutter, one-size-fits-all model for organizational change. That’s why we suggest a stepped approach comprised of custom-tailored programs to meet the organization where it is, ensuring that change is meaningful and sustainable. We also know that workplace transformation is an urgent necessity.
We’re here to help.
Have you downloaded The Caring Culture Playbook? When you sign up to receive your free Playbook, you will also get access to additional resources related to the programs that support the Playbook's strategies and generate real, measurable and tangible results.
We've developed The Caring Culture Playbook based on our 20+ years of experience working with leaders. It's a guide to building a caring culture where employees feel safe talking about mental health and confident in supporting one another. The Caring Culture Playbook ensures your actions will result in long-term, sustainable change in your organization's culture and your people.
Get started on transforming your organization today.