by Urs Koenig, PhD, MBA, Principal, Redpoint Coaching
As we embark onto 2014 I would like challenge you to design the very best place to work! How would this organization of our dreams look do you ask? Read on…
Rob Goffee, an emeritus professor of organizational behavioral at the London School of Business, and Gareth Jones, a visiting professor at the IF Business School in Madrid, posed the question about what the company of our dreams looks like to hundreds of leaders. They summarized their findings in the May 2013 edition of the Harvard Business Review (“Creating the best workplace on earth: what employees really require to be their most productive”)
Here is what they found. In the organization of our dreams:
- I can be myself
- I am told what is really going on
- My strengths are magnified
- The company stands for something meaningful
- My daily work is rewarding
- Stupid rules don’t exist
These principles might all sound like common sense. Who wouldn’t want to work in a place that followed them? Most leaders and all of our clients are aware of the benefits of such a ‘dream organization’, which many studies have confirmed. And yet, no organization we are aware of possesses all six virtues.
Why is that so? Several of the attributes run counter to traditional and well established practices and deeply ingrained habits. Others are complicated and costly to implement. Some conflict with each other. All of them require you as the leader to carefully balance competing interests and to rethink how you allocate your time and energy.
So as Goffee and Jones point out, the company of our dreams remains largely aspirational. I therefore offer the below assessment as a challenge to you and your people to aim at creating the most productive and rewarding working environment possible.
The Dream Company Diagnostic
How close is your business to the ideal? The more checks, the closer you are.
- Take the assessment yourself
- Have your senior team and a cross section of your people take the assessment
- Compare the findings and discuss inconsistencies
Let me be myself
___ I am the same person at home as I am at work
___ I feel comfortable being myself
___ We are all encouraged to express our differences
___ People who think differently from most do well here
___ Passion is encouraged, even when it leads to conflict
___ More than one type of person fits in here
Tell me what’s really going on
___ We’re all told the whole story
___ Information is not “spun”
___ It’s not disloyal to say something negative
___ My manager wants to hear bad news
___ Top executives want to hear bad news
___ Many channels of communication are available to us
___ I feel comfortable signing my name to comments I make
Discover and magnify my strengths
___ I am given the chance to develop
___ Every employee is given the chance to develop
___ The best people want to strut their stuff here
___ The weakest performers can see a path to improvement
___ Compensation is fairly distributed throughout the organization
___ We generate value for ourselves by adding value to others
Make me proud I work here
___ I know what we stand for
___ I value what we stand for
___ I want to exceed my current duties
___ Profit is not our overriding goal
___ I am accomplishing something worthwhile
___ I like to tell people where I work
Make my work meaningful
___ My job is meaningful to me
___ My duties make sense to me
___ My work gives me energy and pleasure
___ I understand how my job fits with everyone else’s
___ Everyone’s job is necessary
___ At work we share a common cause
Don’t hinder me with stupid rules
___ We keep things simple
___ The rules are clear and apply equally to everyone
___ I know what the rules are for
___ Everyone knows what the rules are for
___ We, as an organization, resist red tape
___ Authority is respected
Decide where you believe the most important deficits are and take action during 2014 in order to move your organization one step closer towards the very best place to work.
RedPoint Leadership Coaching Blog 