Eng
Eng
Today organizational culture and values significantly define employee motivation and engagement which is a precondition for achieving the best results. We see organizational culture as the ecosystem in which values act as a fundament. Beliefs and behaviors relevant to values create a healthy organizational climate where employees’ energy is creative, productive and serve common ideas.
If an organizational culture is weak, then non-productive energy prevails, the employee happiness index is low, and attracting and keeping talents become difficult. A company’s results do not improve year by year while possible achieved results are backed by high stress levels which in the long term negatively affects a company’s development pace.
The majority of organizations are now facing inevitable transformations. They have to revise their visions, strategic goals and values according to what extent their values support their new goals. Even though the majority of organizations may have declared values, integrating those values in everyday work still remains challenging for many.
A company has a weak organizational structure, if:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
In contrary to this, in companies where the organizational culture is clearly defined and strong:
 |
|
Values are reflected on behaviors, rules of play are clear and defined for employees who understand those rules, everyone knows what is acceptable and what is not |
|
 |
|
Company is attractive for people who related to core values of the organization. This simplifies recruitment process, attraction of talents and strengthens company’s reputation for being the best employer |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
Employee engagement and their performance rates are high, respectively employees are highly motivated and satisfied |
|
 |
|
Teams work in agreement and effectiveness boosts |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
Overall, company is viable in long-term perspective and maximally utilizes its development potential |
|
|
|
|
How we work
Working on organizational culture and values starts with diagnostics before ACT’s team develops the main outline of the specific approaches and activities.
With these approaches we assist companies in strengthening and building a strong organizational culture which will ensure sustainability and viability of the company in the long term.
Have you ever thought that a cup of coffee with a colleague in the office in the morning, questions about yesterday evening's news or plans for the day can affect your efficiency during the day?
What answers do we get when we ask our team members about the behaviors and actions the company uses to improve the organizational environment and improve employee performance? Most of you will probably answer: team building that took place last year or is planned in the near future, monthly meetings to check the current status of projects, corporate events, trainings, etc.
Despite this, few employees will be able to name rituals that exist undeclared in the company. Using them, smart executives effortlessly:
Increasing Engagement
Rituals help team members translate values into their daily activities. Returning to the coffee cup example, having an honest conversation with a colleague early in the day about plans or tasks for the day can be an incentive to be more active and bold in group discussions throughout the day, as well as being more receptive to other people's opinions.
Organizations that incorporate their declared values into daily rituals attract people whose values these rituals correspond to. On the contrary, interaction problems often arise in organizations where declared values are not embodied in rituals.
Building Strong Relationships
People who feel connected work more effectively together. Shared rituals help bring together a diverse workforce and reinforce the culture of an organization.
Rituals increase the sense of belonging and trust between team members. This is especially important in organizations where there is relatively less communication between different departments and positions.
A well-known example of corporate culture is the Grundfos Olimpics Olympic Games, where Grundfos periodically brings 1,000 employees from 55 countries to Denmark to participate in the "Olympics". During this period, employees from different countries live with their Danish team members, which greatly contributes to the deepening of interpersonal relationships.
Stimulate desired behavior
The implementation of small, even insignificant rituals often has a significant impact on improving the effectiveness of the organization.
An example of such a ritual in the research and consulting company ACT is the so-called “Muda Competition” (Muda), which is based on the principles of Lean Management. This competition is held periodically and serves to reduce, and in the best case, eliminate unnecessary costs (including time, human resources, etc.) in the organization. Its main idea is to improve the existing system from the bottom up, at the initiative of those people who have to deal with this or that process in their daily activities and most objectively assess the shortcomings in them. Accordingly, all employees take part in the competition. The competition provides for various nominations - "The chosen Muda for exile", "The most original Muda name", "The most reasoned explanation" and "The simplest solution to the Muda issue".
The winning teams of the competition are rewarded with various prizes, and the reduction in identified costs is reflected in an increase in the overall efficiency of the company.
Reducing stress levels
In a rapidly changing environment, organizations need to remain as flexible as possible. Often this adversely affects their results. In the midst of ever-changing economic, political and other changes, it is important to maintain the strength of organizational culture.
Rituals help to ensure the internal stability and resilience of the organization. They help team members stay focused on the main goal, despite difficulties, and not fall into despair. Rituals have proven to be a guarantee of organizational health for many organizations during the COVID-19 pandemic. Examples of such rituals are virtual holidays and Happy Hour.
Organizational rituals are often found in the cultures of well-known companies such as Google, Zoom, Zappos and others.
For example, an example of such a ritual at Google is the weekly open meetings (so-called TGIF) with high-ranking executives, where company employees from all over the world can ask questions on topics of interest to them and get comprehensive answers.
Zoom's organizational culture is distinguished by its focus on people. The management encourages employees to bring family members to the office, which helps to preserve the health of the team, on the one hand, and the personal life of employees, on the other.
Zappos stands out for its creative organizational rituals. The “strange talent show”, which has become a symbol of the company, serves not to discover stars, but to reveal individualism. Each employee is given the opportunity to enjoy their uniqueness and share their strange or uncomfortable talents with team members.
At the end of this article, I will share with you some undeclared rituals, some of which may already exist in your company, and you can learn about the benefits they create for your company:
Morning coffee meetings - every day in the company should begin with the phrase - "Hi, how are you?". Each of us needs to relax and wake up, which allows us to talk on general topics. A 5-10 minute conversation with an employee often turns into a discussion of plans for the day. Such dialogues often end with the questions “What are you working on today, what are you going to do today?”, which creates a general idea of \u200b\u200byou or your colleague's plan for the day.
15-minute stand-up meetings with team members - sharing information about plans for the day and their projects - one of the most important rituals that creates a general idea of what stage the team is at, whether additional resources have been freed up somewhere or whether anyone needs Any help to complete the project on time.
Circle of acquaintance - the team forms a circle and shares with each other information about themselves that the rest of the team does not know. The existing ritual is often performed in conjunction with the coffee ritual, but in a relatively small circle, the latter requiring the participation of the entire team. This creates a kind of bond between team members, which helps in the coordinated execution of common projects.
Adaptation of a new employee. All new employees must adapt to the work environment and team. Change is not easy for everyone, so it makes sense to plan some type of team-initiated activity with a new employee, one of the simplest examples of which is organizing a Pub Crawl evening.
Knowledge sharing - team members periodically meet and share their experiences (mistakes and positive experiences), which contributes to the overall growth of team members. Also, team members realize that mistakes, to a greater or lesser extent, can make everything, which leads to a decrease in the level of stress caused by the fear of mistakes.
Perhaps some of these rituals have already entered your daily life. In addition, think about what other rituals exist in your company? How do they affect the efficiency of you and the company as a whole? When or who created them? The main thing to remember is that rituals are not created by themselves, but are created, strengthened and initiated by people.
„Culture is not just one aspect of the game – It is the game. In the end, an organization is nothing more than the collective capacity of its people to create value.“
Lou Gerstner, Jr. – IBM
We often come across of such a statement, in today’s world a transformation is not a choice, it is a new norm and whether you want it or not, the companies could not survive without it. But when is the best time to really transform an organization? Is it enough just to look at and look through the future of the industry and develop a new vision of the company to meet a new reality? Obviously, taking steps without having the right vision is more like wandering blindly in the forest, though in line with the vision it is most important to guess how sufficiently equipped we are; how much our values, competencies, skills, systems, or any other resources are capable to support us to follow the path to our future company with minor losses and essential creativity.
It is probably no news to anyone to say that the real transformation begins with one’s self. By realizing and analyzing the company's own leadership qualities, values, limiting beliefs and thoughts, and feeling its role and importance in the new vision of the company, the internal shifts that lead us to the first steps on the path of the change begin.
The key questions in the transformation process sound like this - where am I today and where do I want to be? What prevents me from getting where I want to get? What will help me to walk this path with minor losses and an environmentally friendly way? What are my leadership qualities and skills and what is my leadership energy like? In which role can I best demonstrate them?
These questions are quite difficult to answer, and if the company could not afford to create a field where the internal search process is invigorated, then the answers might also be superficial. Creating this field is the basis of a transformational organizational culture, and only on such a basement can a culture be built that can breathe with live, create and make a system shape accordingly to ensure the realization of a company's vision through the realization of individual human capabilities. The values in such a culture have a leading role where there is a vivid consensus in understanding them. All this is translated into the language of common game rules in daily activities, which is one of the major conditions to achieve the best results.
In today's fast-paced and unforeseeable world, revision of the structures and positions of the companies that have been successful for years but have lost their flexibility is now even more urgent and can no longer adequately respond to the challenges faced in the surrounding environment. Today it can be that in the same position, in the same company, different competencies and skills are prioritized for different time periods and that too is never enough. That is why it is extremely important to understand the roles together with the positions, to strengthen the team leadership along with the individual leadership, to meet the expectations instead of writing the detailed descriptions of functions and duties, to bring in the best results, to create projects to be done and to execute them as it is supposed according to project rules.
Too often in the companies where hierarchical systems are strictly determined, employees feel like being trapped within their own positions, often finding it difficult to see and recognize that the organizational vertical limits their ability to fully express themselves and their interests, while the brilliant results are achieved through flexible systems based on teamwork principles. In such hierarchical systems, the rules are canonized while the employees do not understand their importance, and the rules are followed without any enthusiasm, where it is forced, or even ignored, while horizontal arrangement and team principles vitalize the rule. The rule and the system can be understood not as a punishment, or as a hindrance, but as a support in order to do our job best. These are the changes that ACT underwent in the first stage of its transformation, as a result of which the organizational culture in the company today is a clear example of a living order.
Team play is seen as an integral part of a transformational organizational culture. It requires understanding and respect for your own and team members’ strengths and weaknesses. Successful team play is impossible without the ability to open up, recognize failure and success, share and self-reflection. It is also important to know how to speak a common language so that we do not lose our uniqueness; how to balance each other and overcome a task, the success of which often depends on the competence, skill, responsibility and concerted work of many people. Team leadership also implies the understanding of the fact that even the best qualities of a person can become a barrier if he is not in the right place and in the right role, and that all qualities are equally important for a magnificent success.
The Companies where equal importance is given to both the results and the way in which these results are achieved; as well as the Companies that are equally centered on the outside and the inside environment, achieve more glorious results, are innovators, and are resilient to storms threatened from the outside world.
ACT's unique management model, named The Power of Three, allows us to simultaneously see and implement the need for management and transformation in three areas. A real transformation is possible only if you have a clear vision of where you are going, and share the relevant values needed to realize that vision while they should come right from your heart. This could be done best through the development of systems and enforcement mechanisms. In such a model, the culture is congruent and organic to each employee of the company and ensures the maintenance of vitality and sustainability.
Our new reality is very much alike if you get up 15 minutes earlier to work day, go to “home office”, work, mix personal and work time, head over to your own kitchen during lunch, come across with shopping list when working on projects and mostly spend your weekends on the balcony. New reality makes our behavior and work principles homogenous. In the environment where homes are turned into offices a circle is formed where routine is repeated every day for everyone. How is it possible under these circumstances to keep your work motivation or even increase it?
When speaking about motivation, we most definitely need to mention Abraham Maslow, founder of motivation theory, whose pyramid cannot be avoided by any organization. On initial stage of keeping employees motivated, Maslow considers basic needs: physical environment and safety, following level is taken by psychological needs: belonging, love, recognition and finally, he sees the need of achieving one’s full potential and self-actualization.
According to Maslow’s hierarchy, organizations that fully meet employees’ needs from basic needs to top level, significantly increase their motivation. However, this classic model was altered by the pandemic. Now, employees who had their physical environment covered in terms of basic needs, have an upside down situation: they make stocks of food, pile up hygiene and medical products, stay at home and take care of their own and family member’s health. Under these changes, pyramid is completely altered and it becomes necessary to discuss changed tactics of employees’ motivation.
In Georgian reality, “upside down” pyramid appeared to be most simply adaptable for those companies whose organizational strengths became transferable into remote service as they already had digital processes well-established. To motivate employees, these and other companies had to make decisions based on the stage where large portion of their employees were at.
We are sharing an example of our organization – ACT, how it manages to preserve the bottom level of pyramid so that based on the central part, it supports lower and upper levels and respectively, increases employees’ motivation.
Love, friendship, family, belonging – central part of the pyramid, psychological factors largely affect motivation of employees. As far as ACT’s management follows direct, consistent communication, uses open, free, less bureaucratic approaches, acceptance of their decisions is already quite high. In addition to this, the majority of employees has long history of working for the company, thus, the feeling of love and belonging, supporting each other stands high on psychological level. A feeling of belonging is enhanced during a crisis, when people love to be united, to be in the same boat, this strengthens them mentally and simplifies acceptance of novelties, new initiatives. Being united against the problem from the company’s perspective is perceived as ultimate motivator, while being united around the idea is a powerful tool in the pursue to achieving goal.
Physical environment – new fears emerged in terms of physical level: preserving a job, salary, mobilization of finances for meeting basic needs, physical place to effectively do your job. These fears compromise lower level and to terminate this, organization needs to have timely and right communication with employees. To address this problem, ACT made certain changes in terms of staff/salary, which resulted in preserving jobs for every employee. This decision, on one side eliminated fears in terms of safety and physical environment and on the other side, on central level, built level of basic needs on membership of one big family. Employees became motivated to create safe working environment for them and their colleagues, thus, the company shortly became entirely digitalized.
Self-actualization – some of ACT’s employees were on the level of meeting the need of self-actualization, while part of them, with right allocation of resources, were given a chance to show off their “hidden” skills during the crisis. Opportunity to demonstrate their potential additionally motivated people to receive recognition from colleagues and level up to the last step of pyramid where by fully realizing their skills, they could turn the challenge into an opportunity. Clear demonstration of this is a new consulting platform of ACT – www.act-strategist.ge formed with the idea of supporting other businesses under corporate responsibility.
When evaluating the steps we made, organization was able to obtain a larger picture through a feedback tool (internal study), based on which motivation of employees has remained the same for 57% during crisis considering the decisions made by management while motivation increased for 33% of employees. Inquired staff members also believe that changes will not affect company’s work: on expectation level, they perceived that company would work in regular regime, while they feel optimistic towards the future operation of ACT. As verified by this example, if psychological needs are met, organization culture and feeling of being united is in place, building values on them becomes quite easy, which is particularly important during crisis.
