The Future of Workplace Culture: 5 Shifts We Need to Make
This post was originally published on LinkedIn on 6/28/19.
It's time to rethink the function of HR and be more intentional about our approach to workplace culture.
With advances in technology, growing diversity, changing employee demands, and an increased focus on the employee experience, we can't keep doing things as we've always done them.
This week, I had the opportunity to spend time with other passionate thought leaders and influencers in the Baltimore area for a conversation around the future of work. MaryBeth Hyland, Ed Bodensiek, and I came together about a year ago through our connection to Enrique Rubio, the Founder of the global movement called Hacking HR. We founded the Baltimore chapter of what has become an international community of fellow change agents and constructive disruptors committed to redefining the way work works.
I love to take what I learn and share it with my community here on LinkedIn, so those of you who couldn't attend the discussion can still benefit from the insights shared. MaryBeth facilitated a panel of four other leaders - Ted Capshaw, Ebony Nicholson, Jennifer Rotner, and Enrique Rubio - who contributed their thoughts about the future of workplace culture.
Here are five themes that emerged from today's conversation for you to consider from an HR and workplace culture perspective. We need to shift from one to the other.
1) From Transactional to Relational
"How well do you know each other?"
"REALLY well! We're like family!"
Ted shared his experience of working with organizations and their teams and how common the latter response was to his question. He's found that most of us think we know our coworkers yet tend to exist in data-driven, transactional, surface-level relationships at work. We can easily think of a time when someone asked how we were, and we gave the standard, "I'm good / busy / fine" answer, even if we were feeling something else at the time. Many of us don't go beneath the surface response to really find out how someone is doing.
We check the box by answering the question, but we've missed an opportunity for authentic connection.
As a result, we don't have the level of relationship and trust we need at work.
One of the things my dad always says is: "We know things about the people we work with (their birthday, kids' names, hometown), but we don't really know people." In Ted's words, we have the data but we're lacking depth. We don't know the impact of that data point on the person and how it shapes their thoughts and actions.
To start, we can stop giving and accepting the standard answers in response to the "How are you?" question. We can focus on showing up more intentionally for people and take five minutes to really engage with, listen to and interact with them instead of looking down at our phones as we walk by, too busy to be bothered. If we can understand specifically how people are feeling - mad, sad, glad or scared - then we can know how to support them more effectively.
2) From Fear to Feedback
The process of giving feedback in organizations has largely centered around annual performance appraisals and numbered ranking systems that pummel people's self-esteem and leave them wondering what it means to be a "2.7" vs. a "3.5". Many of us avoid giving feedback entirely because we're scared of the other person's potential reaction to our input and rejection of us.
But giving feedback in a caring way with the right intention is a sign of respect. Our HR Director, Shannon Griffin, recently shared her favorite quote with me that makes the case for giving feedback:
Being open to receiving feedback is a necessary step to growth and development as a human being and as a working professional. Doing so requires humility and gratitude that someone cared enough to speak truth to us. When we are willing to be brave and speak the truth with care, we experience a boost in overall team performance.
According to Tony Schwartz, founder of The Energy Project, "On high-performing teams the expression of positive outweighs that of negative feedback by a ratio of 5.61 to 1. In contrast, low-performing teams have a ratio of .36 to 1." It takes three to five quick hits of that positive feedback "to earn the right to give that one piece of constructive feedback," Ted shared with great conviction.
Expressing authentic appreciation regularly helps us foster a sense of psychological safety in our relationships, and when we feel safe, we are more willing to receive both positive and constructive feedback and to act on what we hear. Effectively giving and receiving feedback is a human skill that is needed for the future of work and HR. It's time to move on from the outdated process of annual performance appraisals and embrace a new way of working that expects and appreciates consistent, ongoing feedback on a daily basis.
For more on the topic of feedback and communication, check out two fantastic books - Radical Candor by Kim Scott and Thanks for the Feedback by Douglas Stone and Sheila Heen.
3) From Telling to Asking
From the earliest days of our schooling, we have been rewarded for demonstrating knowledge and outcomes rather than asking questions and celebrating the process. Jennifer reminded us that "'telling' shuts down two-way feedback" and the opportunity to connect. Instead of focusing on how we can solve someone's problem or telling them what we think they should do, we need to leave space for people to say more and to go through their own process to arrive at a next step.
That's why being curious and asking questions (instead of making assumptions) is so essential and powerful if we want to foster deeper and more meaningful connections with people. To be curious is to notice without judging, something all of us could benefit from doing more in our relationships. Being curious creates the space for another person to experience reality differently than we do. It keeps us coming from a place of wonder rather than judgment.
The future of work will require us to shift from command-criticize-and-control to ask-appreciate-and-listen. When people feel truly seen, heard and valued, they are significantly more likely to be engaged, healthy and high-performing and be willing to stick their neck out with insight and ideas without fear of retribution or rejection.
4) From Harmony to Diversity
One of the common traits of HR professionals is a desire for harmony, looking for areas of agreement and finding common ground in the midst of conflict. This tendency is a potential pitfall because it can lead to conflict avoidance.
So often, we assume that any conflict is to be avoided, but Ebony made an important point about healthy conflict being okay and preferable to harmony. Conflict doesn't have to be threatening. It shows we care enough to bring up and work through potentially contentious and sticky topics that many people would rather avoid out of discomfort.
With the evolving workforce and increase in every kind of diversity, it's more important than ever that we are intentional about questioning the way we've always done things. We need to be brave enough to speak up and be more intentional about cultivating diversity, equity and inclusion at work. For instance, we can be intentional about making sure our candidate pools include populations that our organizations are missing. Focusing on diversity at work has tangible business outcomes, too.
Culturally diverse teams are the most creative and are smarter than uniform teams. We know from research that diversity drives financial performance, too. In the midst of a rapidly changing, global economy, HR needs to embrace diversity beyond checking the box of having a committee and truly investing in embedding diversity into the organization as a way of doing business.
5) From Isolation to Collaboration
With the rise of the digital age has come an increase in loneliness and social isolation, so we have to figure out ways to leverage technology for good. Jennifer shared what her organization does each year to create a memorable and experiential retreat for her leadership team that otherwise works remotely. Their team of four was engaged in a team building activity with LEGO. Someone had added a fifth LEGO character to the center of the structure they built that looked like a wizard, so someone asked why a fifth person was there.
The response from their teammate? "When the four of us are together, magic happens." The only way that person could think to convey that was by adding a little wizard to what they built.
One of the skills that will be necessary for those who are successful and effective as work continues to evolve is collaboration. Even though Jennifer's team of dozens of people is entirely remote, they find ways to connect and collaborate using slack. Using that tool and others has enabled them to grow and scale their business. The team has said that they feel like they're in a room together all day long, even though they may be thousands of miles apart.
By leveraging the diversity of experience, skills, background and perspective, we can build more creative and collaborative organizations that have a greater impact on the world and the customers and clients they serve.
Each of us has the potential to influence our organizations and the world around us by coming together. Start small. Grab coffee with someone at your organization, perhaps in another department, and discuss what you notice that you'd like to see change. Form a small work group to begin brainstorming strategies for addressing the issue. Align with an influential person in the organization and initiate a pilot version of what you want to do. We can do more good together than we can alone.
My Final Thought
Ted left us with a compelling question to consider as we continue the conversation around culture: "What's the risk if we don't start to address this issue?"
What are the costs to the business? To performance? To your future viability? Have you calculated the cost of turnover or a lack of diversity on your bottom line? All of you have to do is Google those questions to begin to assess the cost of doing nothing.
It's time to rethink HR and be brave enough to question how we've been approaching workplace culture. We can do better.
Here's my final thought that sums up the panel's insights and my perspective on what is needed in the future:
The future of work will change if we are willing to begin shifting from being transactional to relational, from instilling fear to embracing feedback, from telling people what to do to getting curious and asking them questions, from harmony and uniformity to diversity and inclusion, and from isolation to collaboration.
**To learn more about a Hacking HR chapter in your area, click here.
If you liked this article, check out these past articles I've written about workplace culture, and follow me for weekly videos on leadership, culture and mindset:
