Inclusive Cultures

simple solutions to complex problems

Engaging employees

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What gets in the way at work?

At the end of last year in one of my posts I talked about the research being done on the Quality of Your Life at Work.

Tony Schwartz and Christine Porath have recently published the results of their research via this article.

What they discovered was that people feel better and perform better and more sustainably when four basic needs are met: renewal (physical); value (emotional), focus (mental) and purpose (spiritual). The survey’s results show how dramatically and positively getting these needs met is correlated with every variable that influences performance.

Sharing the results of the survey Tony says:

It would be statistically significant if meeting a given need correlated with a rise of even one or two percentage points in a performance variable such as engagement, or retention. Instead, we found that meeting even one of the four core needs had a dramatic impact on every performance variable we studied.

The data seems to show that companies should invest in meeting as many of their employees’ core needs as possible, in order to bring the best of themselves to work, which can increase engagement and retention leading to improved profitability.

If you would like to discuss how to improve employee engagement within your organisation, please get in touch.

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Another way to look at employee engagement

GoalsThis morning I tweeted a link to an interesting article on HBR’s Blog Network.

Tony Schwartz  looks at what it would take for employers to shift from trying to get more out of people to investing more intentionally in meeting their core needs

I see lots of organisations where individuals are managed though hierarchy, led by people who are not encouraged show interest in the well-being of those they lead, or have little appreciation that the people who work for them may be motivated by and interested in different things to them.

Employee engagement can seem like an esoteric concept to some organisations and managers. I believe we should move the conversation away from the organisational level about employee engagement scores to a more personal view for individual managers to understand what they can do to get the best out of each member of their team

I would encourage you all to take the survey to see the Quality of Your Life at Work and look forward to seeing the results of Tony’s survey. I will blog more about the results when they are published.

 

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Mind the gap – how good is your leadership?

Research from Roffey Park highlights a disparity between the perceptions of company directors and the managers working for them. For example 87% of board directors feel their leadership is good or excellent, as opposed to 68% of all other managers.

This comprehensive report also shows that only 55% of managers believed their organisation was good at consolidating the benefits of change, whilst 52% believed their organisation was good at reviewing and learning from change programmes

Full details of Roffey Park’s Management Agenda 2012 can be found at http://bit.ly/zjL2ow

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Improving Team Performance

Fundamental Interpersonal Relations Orientation BehaviourHaving recently qualified to use the FIRO-B® model, I was reflecting on how we form teams within organisations and the effect of improving team performance on organisations.

You may be familiar with Tuckman’s model (Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing, Adjourning) which looked at the behaviours of small groups. For maximum effectiveness organisations often want their teams to be focused in the ‘Performing’ stage.

The FIRO model links to this by suggesting that teams will be experiencing

  • Higher ‘Inclusion’ needs during the ‘Forming’ to ‘Storming’ stages
  • Higher ‘Control’ needs during the ‘Storming’to ‘Norming’ stages
  • Higher ‘Affection’ needs during the ‘Norming’ to ‘Performing’ stages

An important area to also acknowledge is the ‘Adjourning’ stage and the sense of loss that people may feel when the team  or project ends. This is key in project work where it helps people to transition and integrate to their new project if the previous one is ended well, celebrating the team and mourning the end of the team by acknowledging people’s emotions.

If you would like more information on how I can help your teams better understand their behaviour, and that of others to increase their personal and team effectiveness please get in touch.

 

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Changing The Way We Learn

Our learning journey starts as a child, and at school learning can be delivered in a fixed style that doesn’t suit each of our different ways of learning. Within organisations we can help people understand how their learning style impacts upon several areas including how they communicate with colleagues or solve problems.

In the video below Sir Ken Robinson talks about models for learning and how we should be encouraging divergent thinking.

The people at Cognitive Media have done another fantastic job of bringing to life Ken Robinson’s talk for the RSA. (I’m looking for an opportunity to work with them on the next conference or away day I organise.)

The book ‘Breakpoint and Beyond’ that Ken refers is available on Amazon

If you would like to find out your learning style,  you can complete an online inventory at the Hay Group website here utilising Kolb’s Learning Style Inventory (LSI).

What is your experience of how the different ways we learn are used in teams or organisations?