At key times during the culture and disruption initiative I’m leading, I’m going to share the strategy, tactics, pivots, etc. with our followers so we all might learn together. It will be authentic, messy and hopefully instructive. Please join us with the overall objective of inspiring a movement to create even greater workplaces and organization cultures. Everyone has the right to thrive in a great workplace. Each of us has an obligation to make it so.
The Challenge: We wanted feedback from the Boot Camp participants and asked for their reactions. We were very pleased with the results and the following is a tiny snippet of responses:
We asked: In your own words, what impact has the Culture Boot Camp had on you?
Responses:
“It’s challenged me to be a better leader. It connected me better with my colleagues, feeling that we are united in purpose – to work together to make an even greater place for all to be.”
“I have an increased awareness of my own actions (and reactions) to those around me. There is value to rumble with vulnerabilities in both my personal life and at the workplace with my team, we can actually make our work aligned with our own lives, ambitions, spiritual and intellectual beliefs. And that this, in turn makes us better ‘workers’ and successful in the things we love to do most.”
“The Culture Boot Camp gave me a framework and some exemplars of what a strong culture can do and how behavior changes. It is complex, takes ongoing effort, is built on trust, needs clear values and purpose, and will elevate our success significant. I found this experience very invigorating and positive.”
“I think it will be infectious (in a good way) if we do right… If we elevated ourselves with a strong culture, I’m pretty excited about what that would mean… Thank you for instilling a renewed sense of purpose and accountability, within me, to the people I work with everyday.”
Now What? Those following this journey in our blog posts know that our Culture Champions will be out conducting a comprehensive listening campaign throughout the entire organization during the summer. What my team needs to do is to provide parallel support as they run into healthy skeptics, and unfortunately, the not so healthy cynics. The Champions will have had the benefit of the Boot Camp momentum and collegial support from co-Champions. However they are likely to hear a facsimile of the following: “Why are we doing this anyway?” “My boss will never get or support this.” “Ha, this flavor of the month will disappear by winter.” “The execs are just trying to look good,” “What happens after this Rubis guy leaves? Who needs a Culture Officer? Just a stupid expense.” “You guys have drank the Kool-Aid, but don’t expect me to be stupid.” “Instead of high level crap like culture, why don’t they fix ___ first? That’s what matters to me.” Etc. This is expected and frankly understandable. We need to listen to all without being defensive or trying to “sell” anything. Taking the right action based on what we hear will be most important. In the meantime, we can positively add to the momentum based on insights we already have. Stay tuned to find out what they might be. By the way, healthy skepticism is important and helpful. Cynicism on the other hand is destructive and over time most will self-select out of the system. They go elsewhere to be disengaged and miserable.
Think Big, Start Small, Act Now.
– Lorne
One Millennial View: Sounds like these Champions will have their work cut out for them over the summer. It’s good that they are armed knowing that skepticism and cynicism are to be expected. It seems to be that if you’re doing something different that everyone is immediately on board with, you’re not doing it right anyways.
– Garrett
Blog 991
Edited and published by Garrett Rubis