Today we’re sharing insight from guest blogger, Rosie Ward, Ph.D. We hope you enjoy Rosie’s wisdom and perspective.
Our world is fundamentally different today than it was just a few short years ago. Consequently, the “rules of engagement” are changing for organizations. Workplace culture not only shapes the quality of the entire employee experience; it is also your brand in the marketplace. Now more than ever, it is critical to rethink the importance of culture and how you are creating the conditions for both organizational and employee wellbeing to thrive.
The Parable Of The Boiling Frog
Renowned organizational and leadership consultant Peter Senge describes one of the “learning disabilities” organizations have with “the parable of the boiled frog.” If you put a frog in a pot of boiling water, it will instantly scramble and try to escape. If you put it in a pot of room-temperature water it will stay put. Then as you gradually increase water temperature, the frog will adjust until it eventually becomes increasingly groggy, won’t be able to climb out of the pot, and eventually dies. The frog is hard-wired to sense threats to its survival based on sudden changes, not slow, gradual ones.
In that respect, businesses are like frogs; they don’t pay attention to slow, gradual processes and feedback, and instead wait until they are in hot water. This frequently results in making rash decisions and wasting resources on hopeful “quick fix” solutions — which almost never work and frequently backfire. Organizations need to learn to slow down and pay attention to the subtle feedback — and use that feedback to guide a thoughtful approach to improving workplace culture.
Feedback In The Age Of Transparency
With the increasing transparency of the state of workplace culture, it’s becoming more difficult for organizations to hide their dysfunction. Robert Hohman, the founder and CEO of Glassdoor, stated that “The knowledge of what it is like to be working for a company cannot be hidden. It will be known.” So those organizations struggling with poor organizational health and culture will also struggle to hire and keep top talent in the increasingly competitive marketplace.
So what is your employment brand? Not the image your PR folks have created but your true employment brand that walks home every night and talks to neighbors, friends, and strangers on social media. What do your employees say about your organization? Employee engagement and your employment brand are synonymous, so it’s important to pay attention to how your organization is perceived by potential job candidates, customers, and really all stakeholders.
Using Feedback To Improve Your Workplace Culture
With the world becoming increasingly transparent, how can you effectively use both the subtle and dramatic feedback to help improve your workplace culture? By first gaining a holistic perspective of the current state of both organizational and employee wellbeing and then being transparent about the feedback and including ALL employees in the planning process. Yes, this is not a typo; I do mean “ALL” employees.
What we know from research on Fair Process is that people care about the decisions their organizational leaders make, but employees care even more about the process that was used along the way.
- They want to know their voice was heard and their feedback was considered, even if the feedback was rejected and not used.
- Employees will commit to a manager’s decision (even one they disagree with) if they believe the process used to make the decision was fair.
- Employees are most likely to trust and cooperate freely with systems when Fair Process is observed.
- Fair Process is not decision by consensus; it gives every idea a chance, but it’s the merit of the ideas (not consensus) that guides the decision making.
Using this approach profoundly influences attitudes and behaviors and is critical to high performance. It responds to a basic human need to be valued as human beings and not as “human capital,” “personnel,” or “human assets.” Being valued in this way builds trust and commitment — which leads to voluntary cooperation; and voluntary cooperation drives performance where people will go above and beyond the call of duty to share their knowledge and creativity. However, when employees do not feel valued or heard, they tend to not trust the decisions made by leaders. And when employees don’t trust managers, engagement drops.
So, although it may initially seem cumbersome, involving all employees in the planning process for improving organizational and employee wellbeing is critical to addressing the top concerns and challenges business are currently facing. It can’t just be managers sitting in a room creating plans for improving business operations that ignore employee wellbeing; and it can’t be a wellness committee sitting in a room creating plans for employee wellbeing initiatives without considering the business challenges or involving the people whom they are trying to support.
Organizational leadership consultant and guru Margaret Wheatley states that people only support what they’ve helped to create. Therefore, strategic planning needs to evolve and be more about building collective wisdom.
“I want to use the time formerly spent on detailed planning and analysis to create the organizational conditions for people to set a clear intent, to agree on how they are going to work together, and then practice to become better observers, learners and colleagues as they co-create with their environment.”
And chances are that the more you include employees in the process of creating meaningful change within your organization that enhances and improves the employee experience, the more your cultural brand’s reputation will also improve.
This content was written and shared by guest blogger Rosie Ward, Ph.D.
Rosie Ward, PhD, MPH, MCHES, BCC, CIC* is one of the top speakers in the country on organizational and employee wellbeing. Her high energy, lively, and engaging presentations have made her a sought-after speaker for HR, leadership, wellness, and benefit conferences. She is a consultant, professional coach, and author known as a thought leader who challenges the status quo, pushes boundaries, and engages people and organizations to find success through shifting old, ineffective thinking habits. She has a diverse background with over 20 years of experience promoting wellbeing, employee engagement, and transforming organizations in various settings. As CEO and co-founder of Salveo Partners, LLC, Dr. Ward consults with organizations, blending the worlds of Organizational Development and employee wellbeing to provide a unique approach to create thriving workplace cultures that free, fuel, and inspire people to bring their best selves to work. She is co-author of the popular book “How to Build a Thriving Culture at Work, Featuring the 7 Points of Transformation,” and a contributing author to the book “Organization Development in Healthcare: High Impact Practices for a Complex and Changing Environment.”
Connect with Rosie on LinkedIn and Twitter, and via her website.
