Creating an Inspiring, Positive Workplace Culture, More or Less
Here’s a very simple exercise to try at your next team meeting or employee retreat: Have a fast and furiously energetic brainstorm over what you need more of and what you need less of in your workplace. Your goal isn’t to solve all your issues or create world peace in ten minutes, but doing this simple exercise is a quick and easy way to generate top-of-mind thoughts related to the big picture of what’s working and what’s not in your workplace.
Or try some of these variations:
- What fosters more creativity and innovation, what slows it down?
- What behaviors encourage more trust, what kills trust?
- What fosters more open communication, what dampens open and honest communication?
- What supports better customer service, what is getting in the way of better customer service?
- What makes work more fun, what gets in the way of having fun?
- What motivates employees, what de-motivates employees?
Here’s an example of some of the responses from a brainstorming session I recently facilitated with a client, where we started at the most general level: What do you need more of at work, what do you need less of?
- More meaningful, in-depth conversations, less meetings
- More positive energy mongering, less fear-mongering
- More cross-team cooperation, less working in silos
- More brainstorming, less blame-storming
- More personal responsibility from everyone, less excuses and passing the buck
- More appreciation, less criticism
- More fun, less seriousness!
- More smiles, less gloomy faces!
- More problem-solving, less problem-finding
Next, teams split up to come up with their top-3 “how’s” for each of those workplace issues and reported back to the bigger group, where everyone made a commitment to focus on the top ways to do more ______ , less ______.
To keep the message alive, they are creating a giant scoreboard to remind everyone to be aware of their attitudes and behaviors and to track the general trend to make sure they are moving, more or less, in the right direction.
What question would you ask your team? And what’s the #1 thing you need at work, more or less? Please share your thought below!
2018. Michael Kerr is a sought-after international keynote speaker, and business trainer, and author of six books including Putting Humor to Work, Inspiring Workplaces, and The Humor Advantage – Why Some Businesses Are Laughing All the Way to the Bank. Michael helps his clients deliver outrageous results by putting humor to work and by building inspiring, innovative cultures.
