Survival is no longer an issue of superior power or force, but an issue of superior creativity. The biggest challenge facing organizations is how to build a culture that encourages the highest levels of employee creativity and productivity.
-Richard Barrett
Culture Shaping – Unleash the Potential
Every leader has the prerogative of shaping organizational culture. Leaders who are not consciously shaping the culture of their organization run the risk of being driven by the culture. Visionary leaders maximize their organization’s potential through the conscious creation of a values-centered culture. The benefits of cultural transformation include:
- Bringing aliveness to the organization through inspired employees.
- Igniting the deepest levels of employee creativity and the highest levels of productivity.
- Creating unified synergy toward a compelling future image.
- Enhancing employee retention and recruitment.
- Solidifying relationships and breaking through silos.
American Workers Are Just Putting in Time
Organizations today find themselves in a position of asking employees to do more and more with less and less. Many American workers are burned out and disenchanted.
A study of how women in Columbus, Ohio, spend their time and the enjoyment they receive from those activities, by Princeton Psychologist, Daniel Kahneman, found that women rated their commute to work as more enjoyable than their actual work.
Can we translate this to mean, they prefer being stuck in a traffic jam to performing their jobs?
Columbus career women are not alone. Gallup statistics reveal that 74% of the American workforce is either just putting in time or actively spreading discontent. As the infectious discontent spreads throughout organizations, leaders become ineffective and absorbed in their problems. Unified approaches to common goals become a distant memory as leaders are consumed with their own survival. Flavor-of-the-month strategies are implemented as remedies for the ailing culture, adding to employee frustration.
Recruitment becomes difficult when discontent is prevalent because the company’s greatest sales force, its employees, are unwilling to recommend the organization to friends and acquaintances. They do not want to risk disappointing others.
Innovation and creativity are essential to meeting the demands of the new marketplace. Yet, envisioning what might be possible for an organization is impossible when employees feel stuck and disgruntled. From this vantage point it is easier to blame their leaders for what isn’t going right. How can organizations meet the challenging demands of an increasingly competitive marketplace when employees are just putting in time?
Good News: Cultural Transformation Energizes Employees
Leadership Beyond Limits, LLC offers a unique and potent process for cultural transformation that is grounded in a blend of three approaches, the science of Positive Psychology, the generative Appreciative Inquiry process and Richard Barrett’s Cultural Transformation Tools.
The power of these approaches are fundamental to our DEEPER process which connects positive organizational transformation with the passion of the employees.
Organizations who successfully transform their cultures:
- articulate and communicate what values define the organization, why the organization exists and what their long term contribution to society will be.
- invest in employee development, so that individuals can explore how their own values, beliefs and purpose align with the organizations.
- support employee’s in using their strengths and invite employees to build on the organization’s future image
- build an infrastructure that supports the transforming culture through education, structures, processes, policies, etc.
The transformation process and the development of transformational leaders bring resilience and renewed energy to the organization. Employees remember what originally attracted them to the organization and their work takes on a deeper shared purpose. Employees experiencing renewed creativity and enhanced productivity working in a unified manner toward a compelling future vision deliver results.
How Does a Leader Know if This is Right For Their Organization?
Why not find out? Leadership Beyond Limits invites you to contact us today to set up a telephone consultation with Tom. There is no cost or obligation for this consultation.
Leadership Beyond Limits works with clients who share our passion for bringing meaning and value back to work. It is important that we mutually agree we are a good fit before beginning our work together.
Contact Leadership Beyond Limits to explore maximizing the full potential of your organization.
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