A Great Workplace Culture Is Foundational To Success

In the past 14 years I have been privileged to work with several organisations that have embraced and succeeded at transforming workplace culture from the dark ages to one that is uplifting for the human spirit, the essential in my view for optimum performance to occur on a consistent basis.

Here are the 7 major lessons I have learnt

1. Organisation has a cause beyond profits, power and politics
   
   The main reason we should be gathering together in networks of relationships (organisations) is to create value for others. Profit, power, and politics are legitimate but not real causes. Stand for something greater than these.
   
   Key Actions
   
   • Put energy, and time into social, environmental and others causes you are passionate about
     
   • Be generous to worthwhile causes with your money
     
   • Find out the causes stakeholders support and get involved
     
   • Get involved in community affairs
     
   • Help people find and maintain meaning in their work
   
   
2. Leaders and managers walk the talk
   
   Some people have heard the talk, don’t believe it and therefore don’t walk the talk.
   
   Some people have heard the talk, believe it, but don’t walk the talk. Some people have heard the talk, talk the talk, but still don’t walk the talk. Real leaders rarely talk the talk, they just walk the talk.
   
   Key Actions
   
   • Rarely talk the talk, just walk the talk
     
   • Influence the non walkers of the talk to change or leave
   
   
3. Standard operating policies, procedures and practices are an accurate reflection of what actually happens in daily work
   
   I have given up being exasperated almost every time I read standard operating policies, procedures and practices (SOP’s) often developed by consultants to help an organisation get the 5 ticks or whatever and yet do not reflect how things actually are in doing the day to day work.
   
   Key Action
   
   • Have the people who do the work write the SOP’s, (by all means give them assistance with language and the need to conform to national standards) or at very least get the people who do the work to genuinely sign off on what someone else has written.
   
   
4. Real listening to staff and customers
   
   Very few organisations properly and professionally listen to staff and customers and therefore fail to truly discover real needs, expectations and desires, and therefore miss the mark when it comes to providing value demanded by staff and customers.
   
   Typically many of the few organisations that do effectively listen fail to act on what they hear.
   
   Key Actions
   
   • Hire professionals next time you do an employee or customer survey
     
   • Include the responses and recommended actions in your strategic thinking and scenario planning processes
     
   • Report back to staff and customers as you implement modifications and changes
     
   • Use staff and customers as your main advocates of modifications and changes
   
   
5. Provision of valuable and integrated learning and training programs
   
   A lot of learning and training programs are perceived with cynicism and skepticism by employees because they are not seen as integral to everything else we do or it is believed will not make a real difference in the workplace.
   
   Key Actions
   
   • Hire Presenters (consultants, trainers, advisors, coaches, mentors, and speakers etc.) capable of discovering the real learning and development expectations, needs and desires of your people
     
   • When hiring presenters pay for value and outcomes not time and processes
     
   • Get a guarantee in writing from presenters regarding return on investment
     
   • Hire only those presenters who have genuine expertise and can present in eloquent ways? (Their professional membership of National Speakers Association of Australia Ltd (NSAA) or The Australian Institute of Training and Development (AITD) is a good guide to this)
     
   • Ensure there will be strategies in place following all learning and development that means application of learning at the workplace
     
   • If your people do participate in courses of a generic nature ensure content and the presenter / s have been well researched resulting in confidence that all will be of genuine value
     
   • Pay particular attention to the interconnectedness between learning and development and all other strategies for personal and business growth
     
   • The Fun Factor: it is a proven fact that people learn when they laugh. All learning and development therefore must contain humour and opportunity for people to have fun
     
   • Ensure there is a fit between the likely positive and productive outcomes of participating in the seminar or workshop and your overall learning and development programs for your people
   
   
6. Successful performance management system
   
   Formal performance appraisals are not performance management. They are a very small part of performance management system.
   
   Ensure your performance management system has at least the following components:
   
   Key Actions
   
   • Clearly defined organisational values that are congruent with personal values
     
   • Defined and shared behaviour standards for each value that are measured regularly
     
   • Organisations purpose (mission) clearly defined and based on genuine validation of employee and customer needs, expectations and desires
     
   • How purpose is achieved (vision and strategies) clearly defined
     
   • Individual roles and their purpose defined so as it is clear where individual roles fit with organisational purpose
     
   • Invite new employees to join you only when you are absolutely convinced they share your values
     
   • Current employees who do not share values are performance managed out of the organisation
     
   • New people should be employed to match roles along a supplier – customer chain not an organisational chart
     
   • New employees are provided with thorough induction into organisational culture and their individual roles and those of their internal and external customers
     
   • Every employee has an individual goal achievement plan summarizing their personal and organisational goals and the key strategies to achieve them
     
   • Informal feedback (praise and constructive criticism) is exchanged continually in relation to achievement of goal achievement plans
     
   • Formal feedback exchange that celebrates goal achievement and revises goal achievement plans occurs regularly (at least quarterly)
   
   
7. Emphasis on character and commitment over competency and compliance
   
   In my experience people of character and commitment comply with necessary laws and policies, and, if they do not have certain competencies required will eagerly learn them or will at very least be prepared to work in teams where skill sets are shared.
   
   We need competency based training to be forever increasing and improving our skills however the bulk of our focus should be on character and commitment learning and training.
   
   Key Actions
   
   • Focus your recruitment and retaining of employees on character and commitment
     
   • Weight your learning and development programs in favour of character and commitment

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Ian Berry is based in Brisbane, Australia. Ian is a leading authority in helping leaders at all levels and business owners / directors achieve more of what you want and less of what you don’t through finding the right balance for you between the art of leadership and the science of management and harmony between your life and work. Ian can be contacted via his Web Site: www.ianberry.au.com or Email: ian@ianberry.au.com
First published: 30 September 2004.
Last updated: 8 March 2006.