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When we do not develop organizational culture intentionally, it creates itself. This guide summarizes the basics of developing and maintaining your culture.
Core Culture Components
Define Values
Live them before your team
Reward your team when they exemplify the values
Virtues to Live By at Work
a. Companionate Love
b. Well-Being
c. Happiness
3. Emotions at Work
a. The Unseen Aspect of People That Matters Most!
b. Developing a Trauma Informed Team
i. The ACEs Study
ii. Strategies for Trauma Informed Human Resource Management
iii. Implications in work and school settings implementing the 3R’s.
Environment of Culture
Creating Culture Landscape Conducive to Inclusion
Navigating Cultures of People Groups
Cultural Considerations with Race & Ethnicity in Leading Teams
Creating Cultural Intelligence Within Our Environment
The Story of Your Organization-Collective Purpose
Be the story you want to create for your organization.
Create your organization’s story based on cultural management strategies.
Communicate intentions, vision, with team implementation planning.
Conclusion
References and Resources
CHAPTER ONE
Core Culture Components
Defining Your Organization’s Values
I once walked into a new workplace realizing there were a lot of undercurrents, or unspoken norms. How the work environment was described during the recruitment process, was not accurate, but only a description of what the employer aspired to. It would have been more trust-building for the manager to simply state work culture is an ongoing process, with the goals clearly outlined of what that would look like in the future. It takes humility for a supervisor to admit their faults, with efforts to change culture. The team will follow the leader through the spoken and unspoken norms, and those who do not fit, will be unhappy and eventually leave.
How do we define culture? According to the Shein Model there are 3 components that will lay the groundwork of the importance of values in our organizations.
Artifacts
The first level is the characteristics of the organization which can be easily viewed, heard and felt by individuals collectively known as artifacts. The dress code of the employees, office furniture, facilities, behavior of the employees, mission and vision of the organization all come under artifacts and go a long way in deciding the culture of the workplace.
Organization A
No one in organization A is allowed to dress up casually.
Employees respect their superiors and avoid unnecessary disputes.
The individuals are very particular about the deadlines and ensure the tasks are accomplished within the stipulated time frame.
Organization B
The employees can wear whatever they feel like.
Individuals in organization B are least bothered about work and spend their maximum time loitering and gossiping around.
The employees use derogatory remarks at the work place and pull each other into controversies.
In the above case, employees in organization A wear dresses that exude professionalism and strictly follow the policies of the organization. On the other hand, employees in organization B have a laid back attitude and do not take their work seriously. Organization A follows a strict professional culture whereas Organization B follows a weak culture where the employees do not accept the things willingly.
Values
The next level according to Schein which constitute the organization culture is the values of the employees. The values of the individuals working in the organization play an important role in deciding the organization culture. The thought process and attitude of employees have deep impact on the culture of any particular organization. What people actually think matters a lot for the organization? The mindset of the individual associated with any particular organization influences the culture of the workplace.
Assumed Values
The third level is the assumed values of the employees which can’t be measured but do make a difference to the culture of the organization. There are certain beliefs and facts which stay hidden but do affect the culture of the organization. The inner aspects of human nature come under the third level of organization culture. Organizations where female workers dominate their male counterparts do not believe in late sittings as females are not very comfortable with such kind of culture. Male employees on the other hand would be more aggressive and would not have any problems with late sittings. The organizations follow certain practices which are not discussed often but understood on their own. Such rules form the third level of the organization culture. a.
We will begin with what we cannot see (assumed values), and progress to what is seen, (artifacts). When I walked into the organization, and I picked up on incongruencies with what was described as the culture vs. what the norms actually were, this describes the ‘assumed values’ of the organization. No one would actually say it, but it was inferred. The company actually did not have values defined as a whole. There were definitely values of the employees that were evident, and at times driven by the values of the supervisor. What was seen were the artifacts. I saw the office under construction with a heavily utilized space by the staff, being transformed for a very specified purpose. This in turn created chaos in the environment as the team had to be creative with the remaining office space. The artifact that was shown was that the space for employees to work was sacrificed for a project. There was no ask for employee feedback, as this was told in the team meeting that the decision had already been made. What I understood was the supervisor did not value feedback from the team, and this was inferred by the actions that I could clearly see and experience. I had just walked into an unhealthy culture that played out during my term of employment.
As a leader who values culture, let’s begin with talking about how culture is communicated. As people we feel, think, & speak thus behaving. We can hear and see the words and actions. What cannot be seen are the emotions. There are social norms in organizations telling us whether it is acceptable to express those emotions, or whether they should be held in and repressed. The best way to change and influence culture is through social norms. There needs to be buy in from the team and teams follow leaders’ behavior and example. When does culture begin to matter in the employment process?
Culture development begins with the recruitment process and continues even when employees leave your organization.
A great place to begin, is to identify your company values communicating them clearly with prospective recruits. Leaders often fill positions too quickly, focusing on skill set to perform job duties. In addition to skill set, add a core value component to identify whether the new hire will fit organizationally with the culture. Perhaps your organization has values that have not been talked about in a while. This is a great time to explore if they are relatively current in context of your team’s cultural goals. Let’s begin with identifying/clarifying or revising your values. If your organization does not have values defined, no worries, just focus on that piece.
Exercise:
What are your organizations values?
What are values that you would like to add/delete/revise?
How can you involve your employees in identifying/revising values?
When the recruitment process begins with culture, new hires will know that is highly regarded in your organization. Ensuring there is alignment with values, is key to successful onboarding for long-term employment. As we identify these values, let’s consider soft skills. These can be identified as:
Effective communication skills.
Teamwork
Dependability
Adaptability
Conflict resolution/Collaboration
Flexibility
Leadership
Problem-solving
Creativity
Persuasion
Adaptability
Time Management
In a recent study by Google, project Oxygen found soft skills trumped STEM skills in their employees. They found “among the eight most important qualities of Google’s top employees, STEM expertise comes in dead last. The seven top characteristics of success at Google are all soft skills: being a good coach; communicating and listening well; possessing insights into others (including others different values and points of view); having empathy toward and being supportive of one’s colleagues; being a good critical thinker and problem solver; and being able to make connections across complex ideas.” b.
How can we go about assessing for values and soft skills during recruitment?
What we value is evident through our life and career decisions. Ask about the candidate’s choices in life. What is their story? You may ask, how is this pertinent to a job that requires specified skills? A person’s story often tells us what they value in life. People make up organizations. Regardless of technology, we will continue to need people to complete tasks, and soft skills are proven to be highly profitable to a company. By hearing their story and probing into the ‘why’ of life and work decisions, we can learn about an important factor to success in employment: soft skills.
In the Linked In 2019 Global Talent Trend report, 92% of those surveyed stated soft skills matter as much or more than hard skills. They also reported 89% of, ‘bad hires’ lack soft skills. c. As we probe into the story of the candidate, we will learn how they applied existing soft skills to the situations. This is an investment of time for the hiring manager, and a valuable use of time to hire for soft skills equally to hard skills. Utilize the following worksheet for your hiring process:
Ask about their Life Story. As they describe life events, probe for culture content of thoughts and emotions.
Sample questions:
What were you thinking when that occurred?
I can imagine that was an emotional experience, can you tell me more about that? If the candidate has healthy boundaries, they will express the emotion calmly within context. It will be very telling to you if they candidate becomes nervous, divulging too much information, or talks incessantly. We are assessing for soft skills, and boundaries is an important one that is not normally listed by hiring professionals.
What do we mean by boundaries?
Communicating how we want, and would not like to be treated
Protecting values that are important to us.
Respect for self
Healthy assertiveness to others
Listen for words that are spoken, as well as non-verbal communication that is conveyed.
Finally, this is not meant to be a therapy session. It will tell you about the candidate, how well they integrate work & life and express or repress emotions with good boundaries.
For the employees on our teams already, there is hope. It is proven that soft skills can be taught!
According to a study conducted by Namrata Kala who partnered with Shahi Exports, in-factory soft skills training returned 250% on investment within 8 months. These were workers on assembly lines. Much of the gain was due to increase in worker productivity, with short-term gains in improved attendance, increased retention and an ability to perform complex tasks more quickly. The year -long training for employees included soft skills of communication, problem solving & decision making, time & stress management, financial & legal literacy, social entitlements and execution excellence. d.
Here is an important question to now ask: How do soft skills apply to your organization’s values? You may have to rework the values worksheet to implement the soft skills.
*To note: Hard skills required to execute a task will change with technology, and soft skills will become increasingly necessary to adapt to these changes.*
Living the Values
It’s one thing to say we have values, it’s another thing to live them. At this point you may be asking, and why are values that important? I recently heard David Salyers speak at The Unstoppable Cultures Fellowship about the culture of Chick fila. David had worked alongside Dan Cathy, the founder of Chick fila for decades. He described Chick fila’s organizational values rooting the decision to be closed on Sundays. As he proceeded to inform us of the profit margin of Chick fila exceeding those of McDonalds and other fast food restaurants, he noted if Chick fila opened on Sunday’s they would lose the profit. What was he talking about? Values. Chick fila has connected with communities making a statement that family time is valuable for their employees. When people truly matter, the behaviors of the employers towards employees will exemplify care for work life integration and well-being. This is a success principal for Chick fila according to David Salyers.
A study by Booz Allen Hamilton and the Aspen Institute focused on values-based leadership and public policy studying corporations in 30 countries. They polled 365 executives of companies, 30% of which were CEO’s or board members.
The fundamental findings were:
• Ethical behavior is a core component of company activities.* Of the 89 percent of companies that have a written corporate values statement, 90 percent specify ethical conduct as a principle. Further, 81 percent believe their management practices encourage ethical behavior among staff. Ethics-related language in formal statements not only sets corporate expectations for employee behavior; it also serves as a shield companies are using in an increasingly complex and global legal and regulatory environment.*
• Most companies believe values influence two important strategic areas — relationships and reputation — but do not see the direct link to growth.* Of the companies that value commitment to customers, 80 percent believe their principles reinforce such dedication. Substantial majorities also categorize employee retention and recruitment and corporate reputation as both important to their business strategy and strongly affected by values. However, few think that these values directly affect earnings and revenue growth.*
• Most companies are not measuring their “ROV.” In a business environment increasingly dominated by attention to definable returns on specific investments, most senior executives are surprisingly lax in attempting to quantify a return on values (ROV). Fewer than half say they have the ability to measure a direct link to revenue and earnings growth.
• Top performers consciously connect values and operations.* Companies that report superior financial results emphasize such values as commitment to employees, drive to succeed, and adaptability far more than their peers. They are also more successful in linking values to the way they run their companies: A significantly greater number report that their management practices are effective in fostering values that influence growth, and executives at these companies are more likely to believe that social and environmental responsibility have a positive effect on financial performance.*
• Values practices vary significantly by region.* Asian and European companies are more likely than North American firms to emphasize values related to the corporation’s broader role in society, such as social and environmental responsibility. The manner in which companies reinforce values and align them with company strategies also varies by region.*
• The CEO’s tone really matters. Eighty-five percent of the respondents say their companies rely on explicit CEO support to reinforce values, and 77 percent say such support is one of the “most effective” practices for reinforcing the company’s ability to act on its values. It is considered the most effective practice among respondents in all regions, industries, and company sizes. e.
The study highlights the importance of ethics and values with the CEO reinforcing the values. Although not every company can connect whether values positively affect profit monetarily, most agree values are important. If we walked into your organization today and asked employees what the values are, would they be able to tell us? Better yet, would they identify ways the leadership exemplifies the values. There is a public distrust of corporations and government, and for good reason. Even though Enron had polished values on plaques on their walls, their leaders were indicted or went to jail. It’s not about writing the values down, placing them on the walls, or publishing them in a manual. What matters is living them out. If we cannot live the values, change the core values to something the organization (made of people) can align with and live by.
In summary:
It's important to define and redefine values that truly represent why we exist and show up for work daily. Ask yourself, ‘if today were the last day in this organization, and I was given an opportunity to make a lasting contribution, what would I do and why would I do it?’ Values define what we believe in, and how we behave.
Reward Your Team
Teams that are cohesive will thrive when under pressure. Poorly led teams or individuals will panic. People respond to positive feedback. This causes us to want to do good. It is true we should do the right thing and our reward needs to be internal satisfaction, however in a work setting, teams appreciate recognition as support. Some managers have stated they do not believe in telling their employees they are doing good work out of fear this will de-motivate them. We continue to site research studies to show human behavior is a factor for motivating and managing teams.
People thrive with rewards. Across industries, companies have adapted loyalty programs rewarding us with gifts. We like getting that free ‘reward’ on the Chick fila app, even though the biscuit may only cost two dollars and change. Our psyche processes this as a true reward, and we are motivated to give back with loyalty and patronage to Chick fila. We also value family time and respect Chick fila for closing on Sundays.
When the team lives out values, call that out for the whole team to be rewarded. In 2019, I interviewed several leaders asking them questions about their strategy. Some of the common themes stated, were that people make up the company and people matter, and it’s important to reward the team and not the individual. So that employee of the month parking, how can we modify this to team recognition? This could be in the form of a day off to focus on what matters most to each member of the team. Even though monetary gain is motivational for us as human beings, and wonderful to receive, it is not always available as a feasible reward, especially when the reward is linked to living out values. Ask the team what they would like as a reward for working effectively together. People engage with what matters to them. The simple act of asking and creating space for input will motivate teams. This is a term called, ‘participative management.’
In this Chapter we have accomplished the following:
Defined culture and its components.
Laid a foundation for the importance of values as a core to building healthy culture.
Identified strategies to hire for the culture fit, assessing soft skills creatively.
Provided the foundational examples of how soft skills play an important role in identifying values to operate by.
Defined what participative management is with the importance of a leader who exemplifies living values, rewarding the team for following suit.
Chapter 2
Virtues to Live By at Work
How Do Virtues Relate to Work?
In March 2019, I launched The Knoxville Happiness Coalition in my area. My pathway had brought me to a place in life where I wanted to create change in my community. As the vision evolved, I began receiving continuing education in culture development. I attended Ginger Hardage’s Unstoppable Cultures Fellowship, and completed Wharton’s Leadership & Management Certification. As I developed the coalition, I myself had to identify mission, purpose and values coming up with the following agreement for member coaches to agree to:
People come first-We will utilize empathy, nurturing people to learn, grow, and succeed.
Work life integration-We will excel with meaningful purpose in our actions, making room for self-care on a daily basis.
Lead with example-We will live a life with humility and gratitude, admitting and learning from mistakes, continually growing with resilience.
This went deep utilizing the virtues of humility and gratitude. I understood that everyone may not aspire to these virtues. What I learned, is most coaches attracted to a happiness coalition lived what they taught, and were self-actualized in an internally driven way.
So, I asked myself about my own process: Personally, I feel safe when I am with
people who highlight what I am doing right. This shows a level of humility, as does willingness to learn and admit mistakes. People matter, and creating a place of safety psychologically is very important to me.
The question I asked with creating the coalition was, how could we get leaders of corporations to follow with a value driven mission that is rooted in humility and gratitude? From my training, I understood healthy culture development depended on these very important principles. So, the question became, how badly do you need or want a shift in organizational culture? And better yet, will this effect profitability of your business? Money matters. Businesses have to operate with profit, or they will eventually close down.
The World Economic Forum gathered 20 years of data from Gallup on employee well-being, productivity and organizational performance outcomes. This included 339 independent studies of 1,882,131 employees and the performance of 82,248 business units, originating from 230 companies, across 49 industries in 73 countries. What they concluded was,
‘Higher employee wellbeing is associated with higher productivity and firm performance.’ Furthermore: ‘We find employee satisfaction to have a substantial positive correlation with customer loyalty and a substantial negative correlation with staff turnover. The correlation with productivity is positive and strong. Importantly, higher customer loyalty and employee productivity, as well as lower staff turnover, are also reflected in higher profitability of business units, as evidenced by a moderately positive correlation between employee satisfaction and profitability.’ f.
Even though there is not a solid conclusive definite statement that your profit margin will increase with focus on culture, it is still worthwhile to pursue. I like what Tony Hsieh, the CEO of ZAPPOS states on his company website, ‘“Just because you can’t measure the ROI of something doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it. What’s the ROI on hugging your mom?” g.
Leaders across industries in company culture such as Southwest Airlines, Zappos, & Chick fila report amazing profit consistently annually. That’s an airline, online shoe retailer, and fast food chicken restaurant!
Companionate Love, Well-Being, & Happiness
My research showed when employee’s well-being & happiness matters, their performance improved with increased engagement, productivity, and reduced absenteeism. The same is true with fostering what is called, ‘companionate love,’ at work. Let’s combine all 3 concepts: companionate love, well-being, & happiness as foundational to building healthy culture.
Companionate Love
Let’s begin with companionate love. A study, “What’s Love Got to Do with It? A Longitudinal Study of the Culture of Companionate Love and Employee and Client Outcomes in the Long-Term Care Setting” focused on a long-term care facility for elderly patients, most of whom had Alzheimer’s, dementia, or other severe impairments. The study involved 185 employees of this facility, 108 patients, and 42 patient family members in different units.
They discovered that the units with a stronger culture of companionate love had significantly higher levels of employee satisfaction and teamwork--and lower levels of absenteeism and emotional burnout. Moreover, the positive effect rippled out to the facility’s residents: better mood, more satisfaction, improved quality of life. The effect went beyond the psychological: patients in units with a higher level of companionate love had fewer unnecessary trips to the emergency room. Even patients’ families were more satisfied.
More companionate love reported in the culture was associated with more employee satisfaction, commitment and personal accountability.
All this is good news for managers because a culture of companionate love, like other cultures, doesn’t usually arise spontaneously; managers, as lots of other research has shown, have an outsize influence on the culture of an organization, since employees look to them to set the tone. The primary determinant of how much companionate love will exist in a manager’s group – is the companionate love expressed by the manager him or herself – are you affectionate and compassion with your people, or do you give off the impression that you just don’t care? This means managers can promote a culture of companionate love, just as they can (intentionally or not) promote a competitive culture, a customer-oriented culture, or a results-oriented culture. They can do this by modeling the behavior themselves, creating structures that enable expressions of companionate love, and giving those behaviors formal recognition.h.
You may be thinking, ‘not my style to show affection or caring.’ Being authentic is key to being effective. People respond to honesty. There are ways to exemplify caring to employees through actions. What matters is to create a love initiative that is consistent with all employees and able to be executed. People will get the point of being cared for.
Well-Being
A Gallup poll showed that, even when workplaces offered benefits such as flextime and work-from-home opportunities, engagement predicted wellbeing above and beyond anything else. Employees prefer workplace wellbeing to material benefits. Furthermore,
In a study by New Century Financial Corporation found the following about the correlation between engagement and revenue:
Account executives in the wholesale division who were "actively disengaged" -- workers who are physically present on the job but psychologically absent -- produced 28% less revenue than their colleagues who were engaged, while those defined as "not engaged," that is, productive but not psychologically committed to their jobs, generated 23% less revenue than their engaged counterparts. Engaged employees were also superior performers in New Century’s other divisions. i.
Wellbeing comes from one place, and one place only — a positive culture, and this is how we engage employees.
Happiness
When I first hear Ginger Hardage share Southwest Airline’s model literally being, ‘Happy Employees (first), Happy Customers, Happy Investors,’ I thought, wow that makes sense!
Herb Kelleher, the co-founder and former Chairman of the Board of Southwest Airlines, used to say about this topic. In his words:“Years ago, business gurus used to apply the business school conundrum to me: ‘Who comes first? Your shareholders, your employees, or your customers?’ I said, ‘Well, that’s easy,’ but my response was heresy at that time. I said employees come first and if employees are treated right, they treat the outside world right, the outside world used the company’s product again, and that makes shareholders happy. That really is the way it works. It’s not a conundrum at all.” j.
Why is it that most organizations think of the customer first, and not their employees? The studies on companionate love prove when we foster affection, caring, compassion and tenderness ie. the definition of this kind of love, that we see a true defined increase in employee engagement, productivity and reduction in absenteeism. Let’s break this down to human behavior. People, when feeling loved, are happy! What is the proven key to happiness according to the Harvard 80 Year Study on Happiness? The key is connection.
In 1938 Harvard scientists began a study with 268 Harvard sophomores during the Great Depression, called the Grant study. They hoped to find what lead to long term happiness. In the 50’s and 60’s researchers included their offspring to learn about the correlation between early life experiences and health/aging. In the 1970’s 456 Boston’s inner-city residents were included, called the Glueck study.
Close relationships, more than money or fame, are what keep people happy throughout their lives, the study revealed. Those ties protect people from life’s discontents, help to delay mental and physical decline, and are better predictors of long and happy lives than social class, IQ, or even genes. That finding proved true across the board among both the Harvard men and the inner-city participants.
The study findings actually tie together love, well-being, and happiness! Robert Waldinger, director of the study who is a psychiatrist at Massachusetts General Hospital and a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School concludes:
“The surprising finding is that our relationships and how happy we are in our relationships has a powerful influence on our health “Taking care of your body is important, but tending to your relationships is a form of self-care too. That, I think, is the revelation.” k.
What are the indications for fostering connection, and healthy relationships based on companionate love at work? This leads to happiness and correlates with health. Focusing on relationships is self-care. This is another cycle based on research findings propelling us to implement these principles in our work environments!
Chapter 3
Emotions at Work
The Unseen Aspect of People That Matters Most!
People are emotional beings. Have you ever walked into a room and felt the energy, undertones, vibe? This is emotion. When we look at our composition, Quantum Physics breaks us down to energy. Daily there is a choice to regulate the emotion to a positive state, or remain in the negative. Somehow, we are accustomed to being comfortable with feeling fear as the normal. We worry about world events and how we will make ends meet or solve relational issues in the home and work settings. It is important to acknowledge the emotion, feel it, do what we can about the situation, and let go what is out of our control. Why is this important at work? One phrase and description of the phenomenon scientifically, will motivate us to teach emotional intelligence to our teams, ‘Emotional Contagion.’
A 2018 study from Tilburg University in the Netherlands found that viewers readily catch the emotions of popular YouTube vloggers. When viewers see a positive post, they react with heightened positive emotions, and the same pattern holds true for negative posts.
Though they were later criticized for their invasive methods, a team led by Adam Kramer, a Facebook data scientist, tested emotional contagion by manipulating the newsfeeds of more than 680,000 users of the platform. Some were given more positive posts and fewer negative ones, and others were given the opposite social media diet. After analyzing more than 3 million posts, the team found that people exposed to fewer positive words made fewer positive posts themselves, whereas those exposed to fewer negative words made fewer negative posts. You feel your feed.
Social psychologist Ron Friedman at the University of Rochester has found that just putting people in the same room as a “highly motivated individual” improves their motivation and performance.
Conversely, when participants were paired with a less motivated person, they experienced a drop in their own motivation and performance. He notes, “Participants performed worse when they were seated next to an unmotivated office mate, even when they avoided verbal communication and worked on totally different tasks.” The effect was detected after just five minutes of exposure. l.
There is solid research with examples of how emotions become contagious like a virus, quickly spreading with human contact. What happens when a member of our team becomes overwhelmed and reactive due to unresolved issues that had a deep impact on their lives? How can we tell whether this is trauma, or true reactivity to a current stressor? Are there times when it’s both? The answer from the mental health and most recently trauma informed community is, yes. Before we talk trauma, let’s address faking emotions in the service industry. This is especially important for your team’s well-being, and has implications on how business in handled when employees are being mistreated in customer service roles. We train our teams to smile and remain professional. Employees need a way to release the stress, be real about frustrations and receive validation and support. This is the reason, again according to research studies:
Curious about the impact of emotional labor on health, Grandey, along with researchers from the University of Buffalo, conducted a study recently published in the Journal of Occupational Health Psychology examining the correlation between alcohol consumption and professions demanding extreme emotional labor.
“We know that there is heavy drinking in service jobs, but we know less about why,” Grandey tells Quartz. “I was curious if controlling emotions all day long was linked to less self-control over this after-work behavior. Without self- control, a drink can become heavy drinking, and there are personal and societal costs that make it particularly important to understand.”
The study is based on a nationally representative survey of American workers in the continental US who reported daily contact with customers, patients, or students. The respondents reported how frequently they engaged in surface acting (faking and hiding expressions at work) and heavy alcohol consumption, both directly after work, and in general.
Grandey’s suspicions were confirmed: Significant patterns arose confirming that employees who more frequently reported surface acting were also more likely to report heavy drinking, even after taking into account other factors like gender, age, job stress, income, and negative and impulsive personality.
The exceptions to this trend were occupations like being a nurse, where emotional labor is high but employees typically feel fulfilled by their work. While nurses said they often amplify or fake their emotions, they’re generally doing so to comfort a patient or to build a strong relationship, which is different from faking emotions for a customer you’ll never see again, Grandey tells Penn State News.
These results led Grandey to advise against “service with a smile” policies. m.
Organizations in our western culture can bring a happy medium to customer service with boundaries. It needs to be ok to say to a disrespectful customer, ‘we cannot serve you.’ Defining those boundaries is key to successful customer service without sacrificing the well-being and priority of employee’s happiness. No wonder there is so much turnover at all fast food restaurants. Most recently an article stated, 100% turnover.
Developing a trauma informed team
We cannot assess, know, or understand anyone’s history of trauma during the recruitment, or onboarding process. Nor can we fully understand what is a trauma response, verses a reaction to current stress, or both. We are human, and every stressor, temptation, emotion, is common to everyone. There is a professional self that we put on at work, and a more relational who we are self where we are most comfortable at home. The more we study and research how to foster work environments that engage employees, we are finding creating community and connection being the key. How can we expect our teams to keep up appearances, when we are learning faking a smile has detrimental effects to our health? There are implications for managers globally.
The ACEs Study
ACEs stands for Adverse Childhood Experiences that include abuse, caregiver mental illness, & household violence. Abuse could be in forms of physical, emotional, or neglect to care for physical/emotional needs. There is a checklist of 10 adverse experience prior to the age of 18. The more ACEs experienced during childhood, there is increased likelihood of heart disease, diabetes, poor academic achievement, and substance abuse in adulthood. The Center for Disease Control, (CDC), defined toxic stress as excessive activation of the stress response system that wears and tears down our brain and body.
The ACEs study was conducted in 1995 by the CDC and Kaiser. More than 2/3 of the middle-class population in the study reported experiencing one ACE, with ¼ experiencing three or more.
Preventing long term effects of ACEs comes from the following building blocks of resilience:
Reducing Stress
Building Responsive Relationships
Strengthening Life Skills n.
When a customer is irate and venting, we could ask ourselves, ‘what have they experienced, or what are they going through currently?’ In no way does this excuse us as human beings from being so rude to others. Let’s consider an employee whose performance is suffering. Maybe their response to feedback is increasingly defensive, and they are missing work. We could train our managers to check in with them in a caring manner, rather than focusing on the lessened productivity. How can we incorporate the 3 R’s in our company wide initiative to be proactive?
Strategies for Proactive Trauma Informed Human Resource Management
Shifting cultures involves changing mindset. When an employee makes a bad decision, do we label them as a ‘bad’ employee? When someone cuts us off in traffic, do we curse them calling them names? Is a baby crying misbehaving? Change begins with leadership as being an example.
Reduce Stress-Work is stressful! How can we reduce stress at work? By creating an environment of psychological safety where leaders admit their mistakes, and it is safe for employees to do the same.
Building Responsive Relationships-Hire a position that supports employees during times of stress. Assess what the stressors are, offering support and solutions. This could be an extension of human resources as a case management linkage of community resources. The purpose is to have a point person that is objective respond relationally to the employee’s stress.
Strengthen Life Skills-Training of employees needs to assess and meet their current needs. High schools dropped life skills courses, and emerging adults are lacking basic skills in managing a household successfully. We are the tribe that will raise this generation of emerging leaders. Meet employees where they are at in life, and help them develop deficits in life skills.
Incorporating trauma informed care in organizations is key to healthy culture. Regardless of our socioeconomic status in life we are not immune to trauma. The more affluent we are, with an advanced degree or title, the more we cover our past or ongoing issues. We have already noted that covering emotions is detrimental to our health and will cause us to cope in maladaptive ways such as abusing substances, food, or making bad decisions. This same truth can be relayed to covering traumatic experiences that continue to affect our lives. Let’s focus on preventative care of our employees to reduce these effects of ACEs.
Implications in work and school settings implementing the 3Rs
Take the ACE:
https://www.ncjfcj.org/wp-content/uploads/2006/10/Finding-Your-Ace-Score.pdf
Chapter Four
Environment of Culture
Humans respond to landscape, media/technology, language, and cultural assumptions. In a fishing village in Crete, the islanders will value pollution of the water more so than landlocked towns. We began this handbook by explaining the importance of identifying organizational values. The culture is determined by a variety of factors, and will vary in what the organization values. There is a corporate social responsibility initiative becoming more in vogue including climate initiatives. Companies in Texas where oil rigs are offshore, will resist the ‘green’ strategies, as they are not in their economic favor, despite the outside narrative that the climate depends on these ‘green’ strategies.
Creating Culture Landscape Conducive to Inclusion
Travel to a city other than your own, and you will notice a change in landscape. How do we respond and adjust to nature and its surroundings? At the beach, I find myself breathing in the salt air, relaxing as I walk on the sand, swimming in the water. What a change in environment can do to my state of relaxation. This is my experience. I once led a team in visualization of the beach, thinking everyone would find this as relaxing as I do. A team member noted this specific guided meditation caused distress to her, as she had skin cancer and did not see a beach scene as relaxing at all. What one finds soothing may not be shared by all.
Culture effects our perception of and engagement with our environment. We have learned behavior traits in our society. Culture is an environmental variable. It is often not seen, and mostly understood as the unspoken. To the outsider, the culture may look weird, and those within the norm of that culture may not comprehend why others question their practices. We have these norms and behaviors, and can perceive what our culture is composed of by observing actions.
In any organization, there is a culture that is not spoken with norms of behavior and expression of emotions and self. Can we be our authentic self, or should we modify to adapt to the environment? Companies hire for diversity, and perhaps should also consider hiring for inclusive attitudes. Can the team value different view points, or is the culture one of the group thinking the same to be accepted? Can an individual who thinks differently be an equal on the team? It is to our benefit to create a culture where diverse thinking is valued. We will adapt to the culture of the landscape.
We have programs that value hiring for diversity. Let’s foster belonging for that diversity. In our culture there is a divide among people who think differently. Look at our politicians. Twenty years ago, leaders asked for the country to unite. In our current culture climate in the USA, our political leaders have created a culture of dissent amongst themselves. They do not shake hands, tear up the other’s notes, look away, and speak in divisive terms about one another. No longer do we have a national culture of fostering unity. How will the citizens of such a culture respond? Can we foster respect in our organizational values for differing viewpoints? Or will we mandate clones of leaders in order to fit with the status quo?
Sometimes, as leaders, we think changing the structure of the company will solve problems. Have you ever adjusted the architecture only to find nothing really changed? This is because of the deep rooted, unspoken culture. People will adapt to the environment of culture regardless of positions and titles. Structure does not alter social norms that are necessary to shift culture.
Culture is a culmination of how we live, our patterns, habits and how we survive the environment around us. Culture is composed of the following in our environment: language, social norms, religion, ethics, socio economics, traditions, societal regulations, nationalism, aesthetics, material culture, attitudes, values, social organization. o. Therefore, everyone in your organization is composed of each. How do you create a space for each individual to be authentic, knowing as human beings the above will vary for individuals? Varying professions do have standardized ethics to follow, and in a company, you have different disciplines. Some may ascribe to a certain belief system based on a deity, and others to none at all. There is a variety of soci-economic status among the employees, that will vary tremendously with where and how they live. How can you unite such a diverse population of employees? With culture, more specifically, a culture of respect, belonging and inclusion. The differences will remain, and the attitude will shift creating an environment of true companionate love.
Think of the birds and how their singing changes in various environments. Scientists are studying the variables. We as humans adapt to the culture or landscape we are in. In urban settings sparrows sing louder than in calm rural settings. They adapt to the loud noises to be heard. p. We wants our employees to sing songs of harmony and love. Here are some considerations and difficult questions:
How do people in organizations adjust to working environments? How can we make the landscape conducive to belonging and an attitude of inclusion of the diversity that we so long to embrace? Can we disagree on ideologies and agree to show one another respect? Who will role model this to us if the leaders of our country are exhibiting such divide? These are important cultural implications for our communities and organizations.
More specifically, how is your organization celebrating inclusion & belonging initiatives for diversity?
Is there a place for team members to celebrate the diversity? For example, can people in your company gather to pray if they choose without criticism from others? Are there opportunities for clubs to organize with varying social interests? Does the milieu in general respect the differences with attitude and words? Can people come as they are to work? How can you begin to establish inclusive culture strategies in your organization?
Navigating Cultures of People Groups
As an organization that has created an environment of diversity, belonging and inclusion; be mindful of the differences among varying ethnicity and race of your employee population. Race associates with biology, and ethnicity associates with culture. When I lived in Florida, there were many people living in groups and neighborhoods amongst their own race. For example, people from Russia gathered in areas with small businesses owned by Russians. There were foods common among the culture sold in these grocery stores. Also, the inhabitants of the specified neighborhoods could associate with people who understand their cultural norms. Others gathered from Haiti, and there were Jewish neighborhoods built around Synagogues. These are only a few examples. The people groups acclimated to a larger culture in South Florida, which I learned is very different from the South, or Tennessee where I grew up. I adapted to the culture of diverse populations and often experienced racial tension. Could we all say we were South Floridian as an ethnicity, or culture? I wasn’t clear how people identified themselves outside of race. In one case, a father of a child in an elementary school verbalized he did not respect the principal because she was Hispanic.
We all have bias. Being aware of the bias is the first step to cultural intelligence. It’s important not to act on or speak our bias, but be aware and own it. This is how we manage our actions and reactions, with the virtue of honesty and humility. Change begins with admitting and owning our mistakes.
Exercise:
List the different races in your organization. By each, write an impression you generally have of each race.
Races One Word Impression
__ __
__ __
__ __
__ __
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How have you acted on any bias by your words or decisions?
How have these behaviors manifested by yourself and others in your organization? Are there comments or jokes made about a people group? How is this tolerated or redirected by management?
What is the plan to rectify the bias?
Cultural Considerations with Race & Ethnicity in Leading Teams
I was raised in a Greek-Cypriot family in Knoxville, TN. My parents immigrated to the USA in the late 60’s, and I was the first generation to be born and raised in America. Understanding culture was a huge part of my upbringing. There was a culture from my Greek parents with language and customs, an East TN culture where I lived, a socio-economic culture of being raised middle class, and a language culture of being bi-lingual. All of this affected my mindset, or way of thinking about life. How I perceived the world and people was shaped by this culture. I lived in a part of town where, at that time, there were mainly white people.
My father was a professor of Physics at The University of Tennessee, so there was also a culture of education, academia, and I grew up conversing with professors at social gatherings. Due to the exposure to the university, I interacted with people from different countries who were in Knoxville studying. My parents would make it a point to invite the students over for dinner, and even hosted a professor from India to come work with my father and bring his family to America.
There was a culture of traditional family structure, as my mom cooked, cleaned while my dad paid bills and took out the trash. When he laid on his deathbed in a coma; my mom, brother and I told him it would be ok, Christos, my brother would take care of us. Honestly, my mom and I do not need my brother to care for us, we were comforting my father to move on to the afterlife within his traditional belief system.
I am sharing this to help us identify the cultural implications of how we lead our team. Do the employees in a certain department have a culture of poverty, where they ascribe to certain ways of thinking? How do you manage them differently from middle class employees? What are the cultural implications? By this we mean, mindset is key to success in any department. How can you lead employees from various socio-economic levels with equity, motivating them to work collaboratively in an environment of respect? The janitor working at NASA when asked what he did for a living replied, “I am putting a man on the moon!” For certain he was not making the salary of an engineer or astronaut, and was equally valued as an integral part of the team. How can you begin to shift this culture in your organization for the housekeeping department to begin to make statements with your company vision as their main objective?
Exercise: Shifting the mindset of your team from tasks to purpose?
Rewrite job descriptions to focus on culture.
Include the vision of your organization, along with values.
Exemplify servant leadership, expecting the same from every employee.
Recognize the team when they serve.
Reinforce your vision and every team member’s significant contribution by communicating this over and over again!
Creating Cultural Intelligence Within Our Environment
Cultural Intelligence is defined by Cambridge Dictionary as knowledge or understanding of how a person from a particular country, race, religion lives and behaves; and how this affects the way they do business. q.
I recently spoke to a management consultant who informed me he no longer was working with businesses due to the greed. His story included developing a method by which entrepreneurs could become multi-millionaires. Once financial success was achieved, the consultant observed the entrepreneur’s greed increased with a sense of narcissism, treating people badly. I thought about the initial goal of the consulting. It was as he stated, to become successful by making money. If monetary gain is success, then we have defined culture as just that. The consultant stated that was the outcome of what his program focused on, monetary gains. Due to the younger generations seeking meaning and purpose in work, instead of a paycheck alone, there has been a change in how we see work. There is a shift from what we once thought of as ‘corporate greed,’ to a conceptualization and goal of, ‘corporate social responsibility.’
If you hire a consultant with a focus on shifting culture, this is what will transform the focus from greed to healthy operations, with priorities in place that foster well-being, & happiness. The outcome will be increased social responsibility, respect from employees with employees wanting to be part of a meaningful culture.
Exercise:
Write down one initiative you can begin to exercise social responsibility in your organization. This may include a monthly volunteer day for all employees to choose a social service agency of choice. What are some ideas that are feasible for your company?
How can you engage your team with these initiatives? Could you create a survey, focus group, brainstorming team sessions, or a combination of these?
Identify a department or group of managers who can help you execute this plan to gather information for you. Who is this composed of?
What is important, is to create change that fosters meaningful existence of your organization. This will in turn, by definition of cultural intelligence define the way your team does business.
Chapter Five
The Story of Your Organization-Collective Purpose
Be the story you want to create for your organization.
What do studies tell us about the leader’s role in culture development? People follow the leader with spoken and unspoken norms by following the behaviors, attitudes and what is emphasized as important. Be the story, with understanding of the gravity of your role to show others the way. Yes, you are that important!
O’Reilly et al. published a study of CEO’s personalities and how this links to the culture of the organizations. They also found a correlation between certain attributes that have causation with increase in performance. In their study, they sought to survey 56 firms with 880 respondents in the USA, and 44 firms with 378 respondents in Ireland. The final sample size was 32 firms. They found an association between the culture and firm performance in terms of financial, market valuation, reputation, and employee attitude. *r.
Cultures with an emphasis on adaptability and detail orientation have higher ratings from Fortune’s most admired list, receive more positive evaluations from employees and are evaluated more positively by stock analysts. When there is a culture of being detail oriented and sharing consistent expectations, the team will implement plans successfully. When the culture is adaptable, taking advantage of opportunities, the organization adjusts to changes. Culture with these attributes of adaptability and detail-oriented act as a social control system that helps with execution of strategy. How can you foster an increase in being adaptable to change quickly taking advantage of opportunities with speed and risk taking, and emphasizing quality with paying attention to detail?
Conclusion
According to Nick Craig and Scott Snook (2014) your purpose is, “Your brand, what you’re driven to achieve, the magic that makes you tick. It’s…the strengths and passions you bring to the table no matter where you’re seated. It’s what everyone close to you recognizes as uniquely you and would miss if you were gone.”
Identify your personal purpose, encouraging your leaders to do the same before you begin focusing on the organization’s purpose. This will clarify the culmination of values in the collective workforce. It will also fill each individual with energy, pride, and determination.
Each member of the team should be able to:
Identify what makes them unique, what friends/colleagues appreciate most about them, what makes them unique, the skills and passions they bring to work, and what people would miss on the team if they left.
With the above questions answered, team members are ready to write a personal statement of purpose.
Now you and your team are ready to cultivate the organization’s purpose!
Collectively answer the following:
What inspires you to work on this team?
What do your customers appreciate?
What is the problem the organization is solving?
With the above questions swirling in everyone’s head, your team is ready to write your organization’s statement of purpose.
~
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References and Resources
Cover Photo Credit:
https://unsplash.com/@krakenimages
a.https://www.managementstudyguide.com/edgar-schein-model.htm
c. https://www.linkedin.com/business/talent/blog/talent-strategy/global-recruiting-trends
e.https://www.strategy-business.com/article/05206?gko=9c265
f.https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/07/happy-employees-and-their-impact-on-firm-performance/
g.https://www.zapposinsights.com/start-here
h.https://hbr.org/2014/01/employees-who-feel-love-perform-better
i.https://www.nova.edu/ie/ice/forms/engagement_drives_results.pdf
l.https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/articles/201906/protect-yourself-emotional-contagion
m.https://finance.yahoo.com/news/why-faking-positive-emotions-lead-130032465.html
n.https://developingchild.harvard.edu/resources/aces-and-toxic-stress-frequently-asked-questions/
o.http://www.fao.org/3/w5973e/w5973e07.htm
p.https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2842653/
q.https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/cultural-intelligence
Additional Resources
Culture
https://www.managementstudyhq.com/edgar-schein-model-theory.html
https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-032414-111316
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-science-work/201408/feeling-the-love-work
https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/fostering-culture-compassion-workplace-matters/
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0001839214538636
http://faculty.haas.berkeley.edu/chatman/papers/GOM-OReilly-2014.pdf
http://faculty.haas.berkeley.edu/chatman/papers/20_CulturesSubculturesDynamic.pdf
https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newSTR_95.htm
https://faculty.haas.berkeley.edu/chatman/papers/36_peopleorgculture.pdf
https://sk.sagepub.com/reference/encyclopedia-of-management-theory/i1163.xml
Purpose Driven Leadership
https://socialimpact.wharton.upenn.edu/news/dollars-change-interviews-aeravc-founder-derek-handley/
https://socialimpact.wharton.upenn.edu/tag/katherine-klein/
https://www.consciouscapitalism.org/people/doug-rauch
https://www.fsg.org/publications/creating-shared-value
https://www.heron.org/engage/pulse/multimedia-impacting-community-ecosystem
http://www.greatleadershipbydan.com/2019/05/building-trust-through-behavioral.html
https://www.edelman.com/research/trust-barometer-special-report-in-brands-we-trust
https://hbr.org/2017/01/survey-peoples-trust-has-declined-in-business-media-government-and-ngos
https://www.proinspire.org/reflections-from-the-2016-net-impact-conference/
https://yscouts.com/interviews/kat-taylor-beneficial-state-bank/
https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/insights/jostein-solheim-do-things-you-passionately-believe
https://www.dw.com/en/knowledge-is-power-why-education-matters/a-15880356
Strategy; pattern stream of decisions have been made.
http://ww.simonandschuster.com/books/Strategy-Safari/Henry-Mintzberg/9780743270571
https://balancedscorecard.org/bsc-basics-overview/
https://kapinos.me/blog/2017/08/28/kenneth-andrews-business-strategy-definition/
Worldwide Management
Managing Multinational Firms L. F. Monteiro, N. Arvidsson, and J. Birkinshaw, "Being in the Out Crowd: Why Do Some Subsidiaries Become Isolated And Does It Matter?" (Research Brief). Sloan Management Review (2008), 49(2), 13-14.
Mauro F. Guillén and Esteban García-Canal, “Execution as Strategy.” Harvard Business Review (October 2012):103-107.
Managing People and Teams Internationally Martine Haas and Mark Mortensen, “The Secrets of Great Teamwork.” Harvard Business Review (June 2016): 70-76.
Corey Binns, “Between two sectors,” Stanford Social Innovation Review (Fall 2016): 66-67
Exequiel Hernandez, "Common Bonds: How Immigrants Can Influence a Firm’s Foreign Expansion." Knowledge@Wharton (May 2014): http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/foreign-firms-immigrant-workforce
Brad Winn, "Risky Leadership Networks: When Leaders Leak Strategic Knowledge." People & Strategy (Winter 2016): 56-58.
Managing International Partnerships Exequiel Hernandez, "The First Step to Successful Innovation? Choosing the Right Partners." Knowledge@Wharton (July 2015): http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/the-first-step-to-successful-innovation-choosing-the-right-partners/
Corporate Diplomacy, Stakeholder Management, and Political Risks Witold J. Henisz (2016) “The Costs and Benefits of Calculating the Net Present Value of Corporate Diplomacy” Field Actions Science Reports 14:82-87.
Witold J. Henisz (2016) “12 Traps on the Path to Corporate Diplomacy” IESE Insight 28:29-36 .
Witold J. Henisz (2011) “Stakeholders Drive Stock Values Brunswick Review 5: 55-58
Emerging Markets and Emerging Multinationals Witold J. Henisz. and Bennet A. Zelner (2010) “The Hidden Risks in Emerging Markets” Harvard Business Review April: 88-95.
Mauro F. Guillén and Esteban García-Canal, “The Rise of Emerging Market Multinationals.” IESE Insight (Third Quarter 2011):13-19.
Mauro F. Guillén and Esteban García-Canal, “How to Conquer New Markest with Old Skills.” Harvard Business Review (November 2010).
There was a hypothesis that CEO’s with a personality of conscientiousness would lead to a more detail-oriented focus. This refers to the tendency to be careful, avoid mistakes, and control impulses pursuing goals tenaciously. Also, it was suggested CEO’s lower on agreeableness foster culture more competitive and achievement oriented with higher expectations on performance. The researchers had difficulty proving causality proposing that culture reflects the CEO’s personality however causality isn’t clear. Perhaps the CEO was chosen due to culture fit with the organization. Causation was difficult to prove, leaving this a topic for further discussion and exploration.
For the purpose of this culture manual, and how this applies to strategy; create a culture of adaptability with detail-oriented culture. Be fast, adjusting to change, innovating with technology and pay attention to excelling with quality of details. Create a story of how you adapt with care. This does take soft skills, as the hard skills will change as technology changes. Your team needs to see your mindset of risk taking with a grounded, actionable plan step by step. How can you tell this in story form to them? What are examples you can give for them to follow you to innovate as the world changes before our eyes? Your courage to face uncertainties with the substance of well thought out plans, will inspire them to create ideas for your organization enthusiastically. Hiring for this culture will require recruiting for an entrepreneur mindset with soft skills of creativity. Be the story you want to create, and people will follow.
Exercise
What is your story? How can you increase adaptability with paying attention to details? Weave this into the story to increase understanding of your culture and vision to your team.
Create your organization’s story based on cultural management strategies.
When teams are rooted with cohesive culture strategies, they propel forward in times of stress. Create the competencies today that drive the strategies of your business. Culture is the driving force for leading your teams in unity with humility, vulnerability and gratitude for one another's talents.
(a) remove job dissatisfaction by clearing obstacles, and promote job satisfaction by providing motivation;
(b) remove negative emotion of leading with fear, and promote positive emotion by fostering an environment for the team to focus and increase productivity with hope;
(c) encourage, motivate, and inspire communicating vision with Member's team;
(d) practice “participative management” with an environment of safety psychologically;
(e) provide regular feedback by having individual conversations with team members;
(f) hire and coach Member's team to be fit for culture, clearly conveying Member's intent without micro-managing
(g) communicate and live Member's organization’s values, leading with Member's head and heart;
(h) rely on culture rather than rules to communicate and improve;
(i) create competencies in employees that drive the strategy of the organization; and
(j) reduce inequity and foster unity for the good of the organization remembering that cohesive teams increase performance during stress in cases where individuals and poorly led teams panic.
Communicate intentions, vision, with team implementation planning.
As a leader, your statements about goals influences employee performance. It’s equally important to communicate vision and values to help the team understand what the purpose is to their work. Our goal needs to be a shared sense of purpose through shared understanding of the purpose. Scholars recommend providing abundant vision imagery rooted in values. This will encourage coordination through a sense of the ultimate goal of the organization.
Considerations to adjust your communication of vision:
Image based words replace concepts.
A proliferation of values replaces a focused set of values.
Shared sense of purpose replaces establishing a sense of purpose.
Research shows organizing and leading both involve directing collective action toward a purpose. Rhetoric is a key medium through which leaders influence follower to understand this purpose. s.
Exercise:
Brainstorm image based words with your leadership team writing down as many as you can.
List base values that grow and expand as the process moves forward, continuing to note what evolves, communicating this clearly.
Ask your workforce what images and values they perceive and visualize when completing tasks.
Post publicly the responses to inspire and increase collective purpose.
ALEXIA
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