There was a time when fields or ranks amongst employees did not separate workplaces, or so we surmise from the ramblings of our grandparents. The reality today is that the social structures of modern workplace culture reflect, to some degree, the Hollywood depictions of high schools. In understanding and considering this complexity of human behaviour, […]
Culture
Does Your Company Culture Encourage Employee Curiosity?
It’s more common than you think Some of the world’s best companies to work for are those that encourage employees to spend time following their own paths of curiosity toward development of new products or services. Google, 3M, Facebook, and Microsoft all allow their employees to take time to explore new ideas they conceive and attempt to develop. […]
A Culture of Teamwork Starts at Home
My parents’ example was a lifelong lesson in the most fundamental fundamentals of entrepreneurship. Dad pursued his two passions—religion and education—while always finding ways to keep us fed, clothed, and housed. He never put our welfare on the line. He might have been a preacher, but he never preached to us. He walked the walk. […]
How to Undermine or Reinforce Your Corporate Culture
Ever had a manager who hung those motivational posters around the office, spoke of “pushing together,” or “you’re empowered to give great service”—and then acted at least once in complete disregard of those statements? You don’t want to be caught even once It takes only one time caught by subordinates to lose the faith of […]
Want Higher Productivity? 5 Steps to Building a Success-Driven Culture
Productivity is not just about delivering services and goods at the lowest possible cost. Productivity in today’s competitive marketplace involves giving sincere attention to quality and factors in the unique needs of your customers and your team. Leading the charge and unifying the company’s moving parts is its company culture. A growing new business doesn’t […]
How Performance Reviews Can Kill Organizational Culture
I’m an unabashed fan of Shane Parrish and the Farnam Street Blog. I study everything they publish, listen to every podcast, read every article and book they reference. It is the single smartest site I have ever found, I encourage everyone to visit and learn on a regular basis. So it was interesting reading a […]
How to Plan an Office Weight Loss Challenge
Trying to dodge the office vending machine, your colleagues’ candy bowl, and the traditional breakroom diet becomes a hard feat to achieve when you are trying to lose weight. But it’s possible to stick to your diet and resist these temptations altogether by motivating others to join your weight loss plan. And there is no […]
How the Right Employees Have an Innovation Advantage
Conventional business wisdom tells us that entrepreneurs are today’s main source of innovation. We see the stories of young founders leaving college with a big idea, going to work in their garage, and building something that changes the world. We hear about corporate employees, strangled by slow-moving bureaucracy, that are blocked from making transformative discoveries. In fact, […]
5 Steps to Changing Organizational Culture and Designing Your Future Workforce
When you think about all the investment you’ve made in your business—from cutting-edge tools and technology to state-of-the-art facilities—have you stopped to consider your employees, arguably the most important investment of all? As you take your business on the continued march of technological progress, your employees need to be on board with any necessary changes […]
10 Ways to Trample and Smother Business Innovation
Success in any business these days requires a constant flow of new and innovative solutions, to keep up with changes in the market, competition, and to attract new customers. Yet in my role as a small business advisor, I still see a singular focus on achieving repeatable processes and “cookie-cutter” manufacturing. I don’t believe these […]
