Posts Tagged ‘Company Culture Change’

Let’s Get It Started!

Friday, August 20th, 2010

© Gino Santa Maria | Dreamstime.com

There’s a song I love to play over the loudspeakers at my public events. The song is “Let’s Get it Started” by the Black-Eyed Peas, and we use it to call everybody back from break, to pump them up and get them ready to GET IT STARTED again!

We could use just about any high-energy song to get people’s attention, but this one has something special, and its right there in the title––Let’s get it started. It doesn’t say, “Let’s hope somebody else gets it started.” It’s about US, you and me, getting started and making things happen.

Maybe you’re playing a waiting game in your company, waiting for management to get the memo and start making a positive culture change happen. You’ve filled out enough suggestion cards to fill the old card catalog at the New York Public Library. Maybe you’ve even dropped a few heavy hints in person. Nothing. Ever. Happens.

Time to stop waiting. It’s time to get it started.

Culture change is first and foremost about a change in attitudes. It’s about making people feel appreciated, giving them a common goal, and helping them to have fun in the process. NONE of these requires a lot of money or time, and best of all, NONE requires the involvement of the head honchos.

Still, you don’t have to do this all alone. Certainly there are two or three other people who would like to see your workplace transformed. Put together an informal group––a “coalition of the willing”––and brainstorm ways to turn the place around. There is nothing more fun than taking the bull by the horns and watching as you turn around not just a workplace, but the lives of the people who spend half of their waking hours IN that workplace.

Here are three ways to get it started:

1. Create your own contest. If you know your company has an objective to sell 750 widgets a month, create a contest. Split your staff into teams. Have them report daily and put points for sales up on a white board. Hoot and holler, give out prizes for individuals and teams. Prizes don’t have to be expensive—people will knock themselves out for a chocolate kiss.

2. Start a low-key campaign against dysfunctional behaviors. Quietly enlist as many co-workers as possible in a pact to not engage in gossip, backstabbing, whining, or nay-saying, and to gently call others on it when they hear it in action.

3. Connect. It’s easy to crawl into our shells, keep our eyes on the floor, and forget that we’re surrounded by actual no-kidding people all day. Make an effort to meet the eyes of your co-workers. Smile and say hello. Ask about the family. This isn’t rocket science––but these simple connections can do more for transforming a workplace culture than the most elaborate system of incentives.

At the end of the first month, pull the team together to take a reading. Odds are very good that you’ll see evidence everywhere that things will never be the same.

Coach Up

Monday, August 16th, 2010

* Transcription

Thank God it’s Monday!™ Your discovery is right… your boss is NOT perfect. Not by any stretch of the imagination. So, that leaves you with two choices. You can spend your days complaining to others about the imperfections of your boss, but you must then expect the outcome: you’ll never be promoted to a management position because of your cruel way of handling your boss, or worse, you’ll be made a boss and you’ll have six people knocking you down all day every day. You’ve heard of Karma haven’t you?

Well, if you can’t complain, what do you do? You coach up. That’s right. You ask your boss for what you need. You follow a simple 4-step process that goes like this.

When you allow Tommy to keep coming in late, what happens next to the others in your department?
They start coming in late and pretty soon customers have to wait for service. My request is that when people don’t come in on time, you disallow this act immediately. Do I have your commitment?

What did you just do? You just asked your boss and said, when you create this observable behavior the outcome is this. My simple request is this. And do I have your commitment?

Now… doesn’t that feel better to know you can manage your boss? The good news is it will feel better for your boss as well. Rock on!

And yes, you get to choose the language every day.

Have a great Monday!

Roxanne

Roxanne Emmerich’s Thank God It’s Monday! How to Create a Workplace You and Your Customers Love climbed to #1 on Amazon’s bestseller list and made the New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller lists—all in the first week of its release. Roxanne is renowned for her ability to transform “ho-hum” workplaces into dynamic, results-oriented, “bring-it-on” cultures. If you are not currently receiving the Thank God It’s Monday e-zine and weekly audios, subscribe today at www.ThankGoditsMonday.com.

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Watch Your Mouth

Monday, July 26th, 2010

* Transcription

Thank God it’s Monday!™ You perhaps have heard the saying, “Big minds talk about ideas, normal minds talk about news, and small minds talk about others.”

What comes out of your mouth is revealing of your outlook of the world and speaks more about you than it does about the situation you’re describing.

Here’s an alarming statistic. Dr. Marshall Goldsmith, who specializes in organizational behavior, didn’t believe the statistic that 65% of conversations in the workplace are about two things, “People talking about how smart, special, and wonderful they are (or listening to someone else brag in that way about them self), or people talking about how stupid, inept, or bad someone else is.

He thought it seemed outrageous, so he challenged the study and conducted his own… well, 65% was dead on.

How quickly do you think you will stand out as an extraordinary human when you focus your conversations on ideas and leave the petty conversations for others?

Have a great Monday!

Roxanne

Roxanne Emmerich’s Thank God It’s Monday! How to Create a Workplace You and Your Customers Love climbed to #1 on Amazon’s bestseller list and made the New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller lists—all in the first week of its release. Roxanne is renowned for her ability to transform “ho-hum” workplaces into dynamic, results-oriented, “bring-it-on” cultures. If you are not currently receiving the Thank God It’s Monday e-zine and weekly audios, subscribe today at www.ThankGoditsMonday.com.

Love this audio message? You may also download the MP3 version and PDF transcript below:



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Sticks and Stones Can Break My Bones…

Monday, July 12th, 2010

* Transcription

Thank God it’s Monday!™ The other night as I was working late, in comes Matt, the man who cleans our offices. He mentioned that he heard me discuss gossip on a Minneapolis television special. He went on to say that for years he’s been cleaning offices, and that he never ceases to be shocked about how much gossip he hears people spew while he’s cleaning around them. “Don’t they get that as soon as they walk away from that gossip, that they’ll be the next victim?” he asked.

Good point, Matt. People who gossip aren’t discriminating and neither are those who listen to it.

Try a little experiment. Do the opposite. Decide to say something positive about everyone you work around. At the end of the day, see how you feel about yourself. IF someone says something nasty about another, tell them a nice thing about that person and ask them to please go make a direct request of that person they’re complaining about.

Now, THAT makes it all interesting. You get to feel good about YOU, AND you get to teach others around you how to be of excellent character.

Have a hoot spreading the joy…

Have a great Monday!

Roxanne

Roxanne Emmerich’s Thank God It’s Monday! How to Create a Workplace You and Your Customers Love climbed to #1 on Amazon’s bestseller list and made the New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller lists—all in the first week of its release. Roxanne is renowned for her ability to transform “ho-hum” workplaces into dynamic, results-oriented, “bring-it-on” cultures. If you are not currently receiving the Thank God It’s Monday e-zine and weekly audios, subscribe today at www.ThankGoditsMonday.com.

Love this audio message? You may also download the MP3 version and PDF transcript below:



Download Instructions: Right-click the download button(s) and
choose ‘save link as…’ to save the file to your computer.

Confessions of a Recovering Workplace Gossip

Wednesday, July 7th, 2010
© Varina And Jay Patel | Dreamstime.com

© Varina And Jay Patel | Dreamstime.com

So you’ve never gossiped, you say – never talked about a colleague behind her back, never spread a juicy rumor.  Congratulations!  I don’t believe you.

Okay, I suppose it’s possible.  But most of you out there have probably indulged in this bad behavior at some point.  I’m sorry to say there was a time when I did as well.  Then I came to realize how poisonous and destructive workplace gossip is.  Now I spend my time spreading the anti-gossip gospel.

A workplace full of whispered gossip is excruciating.  It is destructive to the soul of your workplace and the souls of the people in it.  They never feel safe, always wondering who is talking behind their backs.

Jack has a problem with Tom. So what does Jack do? He tells Lynne, and Jess, and Steve, and Jim, and Sandy.  Everyone, that is, but Tom.

It gets even better. Jack quickly realizes he can’t trust Lynne, Jess, Steve, Jim, or Sandy. They are the kind of people who welcome gossip, you see, and people who accept gossip tend to be equal-opportunity mudslingers. Soon enough, they’ll be welcoming gossip about Jack.

Okay, now let’s suppose you’ve got the message.  You’ve quit cold turkey on gossiping and backstabbing.  But what do you do when someone ELSE comes to you with gossip?

You can certainly put your fingers in your ears and hum the 1812 Overture while tap dancing.  But that won’t do anything to help Jack out of his own nasty gossiping habit.  And since it’s your watering hole he’s muddying, you have a vested interest in helping him on the road to recovery.

Next time Jack comes to you with complaints about Tom, simply say, “Gee, this sounds serious!  Let’s go talk to Tom directly so you can work this out.” When he looks panic-stricken, underline the point: “Well is this a serious problem or isn’t it?  I can’t do anything to help you solve it – only Tom can do that. So please promise me you’re heading directly there. If it isn’t serious, then what are we talking about?”

This approach may or may not shock Jack into giving up gossip, but it will certainly send a message that YOU are not an available receiver.  It also lets him know that you will not be gossiping behind his back – a positive message in and of itself.