The Making Great Work Happen blog
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The Great Leadership Delusion
Instead of falling for the leadership industrial complex, organisations should be doubling down on developing foundational skills for middle managers. It's the supervisors, team leads, and mid-level managers who shape the day-to-day experience for most employees.
The 5 Pitfalls of Team Building Events
If you're going to take your team off the job for a day it has got to add value to, and reinforce, the work you do together. Avoid these pitfalls and instead have an experience that will set everyone up for success for the rest of the year.
Are silos sabotaging your culture?
Every organisation is a collection of subcultures and, with growth, silos can be inevitable. By ensuring managers have culture building skills, these subcultures can be positive rather than destructive.
10 Undebatable Benefits of Purposeful Culture Building
Not investing in culture development is like buying all the ingredients and then expecting dinner to make itself! Here are 10 compelling reasons for working on your culture.
Empathy is the foundation of productivity
Empathy is not a ‘nice to have’. It’s the connective tissue of high performing, productive teams that enables people to do their best work without overwhelm or burn out.
Why 'Culture First' leaders will always succeed
When senior leaders make investment in culture their top priority, they will always reap the rewards, both in terms of business results, but also in staff engagement too.
How to be an email trailblazer
Too much email is everyone’s problem. Yet is can be simple to solve - provided there’s agreement on some behavioral changes.
4 Signs of Culture Window Dressing
Does the culture you are projecting to the outside world correlate with your employees’ experiences? When you window dress your culture you are creating a disconnect that will ultimately play out across the entire organisation and its performance.
Culture: Start as you mean to go on in 2024
If you want different results, take different actions. The same applies to culture and the great news is, a vibrant culture is possible for every organisation.
People just want to be respected
All most people ask for is respect. For who they are, what they believe, the value they add, the feedback they provide, the things they’ve achieved and the mistakes that they’ve made.
What does culture mean to you?
What does culture mean to you? Understand it better to create and evolve it successfully.
Managers - Are You Making Time for Culture?
Managers are pulled in multiple directions - often by things that are never covered in the job description. Building a high performing culture will help balance the demands and bring ownership to the team.
Culture Change? Start with the little things
Like many things in life, little and often is a great way to make positive changes and your workplace culture is no different. If you want to stop paying lip service to great culture and actually get on with creating one, start small.
Is Too Much Culture Stuff a Bad Thing?
If your culture ‘stuff’ is getting in the way of your culture evolution then it’s time to simplify by focussing on what really matters and making sure you move from ticking boxes to taking ownership.
Three culture questions my clients always ask me
Cultures are unique but there are common threads, barriers to success and sticking points that all organisations experience. Here’s three and my insights on how to navigate them.
Who’s responsible for toxic culture?
Culture belongs to everyone - but we have to intentionally create the conditions for a vibrant culture that encourages ownership and that means managers and employees need to know what’s expected of them and why.
5 Reasons Why Celebrating Success is Important
Create the conditions for even more success by making sure you pause, appreciate and celebrate the wins along the way.
No Trust, No Teamwork
Trust should be part of our day-to-day work experience and demonstrated through our behaviours, but more often it is deemed something to be earned and given reluctantly.
Is your company bad for your employees' health?
We’re increasingly seeing research that points to behaviours in the workplace that are responsible for stress, anxiety, overwhelm and worse. Looking the other way is not an option. Create a culture of caring, not scaring.
In a hybrid world, you have to work harder to keep talent
It’s just the way it is now and the quicker we adapt, the better. Define your new working culture, trust your people to get on with it and create and support more effective ways of working (not more work!) if you want to attract and hold on to the talent your business needs.