I was recently chatting with a former colleague who remarked that in her small firm each day at 4:55pm people almost instinctually, unconsciously and simultaneous shut down their workstations. She bemoaned that it was a troubling culture of clock watchers and was looking for ways to change it to something more passionate, more devoted.
Ah, but what is culture? For me it’s the daily behaviors and beliefs supported by a system.
Of course I asked “what’s the work like for them?”
For me, everything moves through our work. If the work isn’t working, then no amount of traditional “culture” change effort is going to fix it. Leaders need only, honestly, be able to answer a few questions regarding the work:
Are people openly questioning processes and systems to improve them?
Are decision-makers and decision-making all closed c-suite affairs?
Are more rewards given for outputs rather than inputs?
Are you financially driven or people driven?
The last is important. If leadership is overly focused on financials, the tangible, then the tangible is what gets attention; time, money, deliverables. That doesn’t sound like a bad thing until you remember that it’s the intangibles; customer service, satisfaction, quality, relationships, etc. that make it all click. Frankly, it’s really hard for people not to care about a company that cares about people.
So Madam/Mr. leader, if your people see their work only as something to get accomplished vs something that can be improved, you’re losing the long game. When people are checking out at 4:55pm that’s an indication that they’ve been checked out a lot longer. Damage control moves to reclamation now. Instead of judging them as not being dedicated or labeling them as check-the-box types needing to be changed, ask yourself if this is what you’ve installed as the unconscious system of work and get to work on fixing it.
Mark, fully agree. I’ll add that they need to know why their work is important in the larger context of why what the org is doing is important. In other words, they need purpose as well as safety.
I don’t disagree but I feel too that more than one generation is jaded by corporate bipolar behaviors. And the newest to the workforce are quite familiar having seen and heard what’s been going on regarding dissolving loyalty. So although focusing on clear, consistent corporate purpose and making easy pathways to the why are critical so too is understanding and respecting that the culture of work trumps corporate culture..