Steps to Create a Positive Work Culture

The significance of creating a positive work culture and its implications, perhaps, cannot be overstated enough. Chris White, who leads the Center for Positive Organisations in the University of Michigan, elaborates the importance in this TEDxAtlanta Ted Talks video and recommends three ways that executives can employ to create a positive work culture that would only bring out the very best in employees.

Ways to promote a positive workplace culture

Chris mentions that in an unsafe working environment that often encroaches upon one’s comfort or ease, employees often tend to become gradually disengaged and dispassionate about their roles, which also reflects subsequently on their work performance. In order to avoid situations like these, the very first suggestion that he offers is based on the cruciality of an employee being heard. He says that in order to make sure that employees do not feel suffocated or left out, it is extremely important to facilitate channels of communication and to ensure that there are provisions for one to articulate and interact, as and when the need arises. This makes employees feel acknowledged, valued, and seen. It is thus imperative, he mentions, to encourage employees to contribute, speak up and participate in regular intervals.

However, he cautions that merely hearing employees out attributes to only half the job having been done. Rather, it is as important to be responsive and to actively address their issues and suggestions. Only ardent efforts and genuine action will convince employees of the sincerity with which their concerns or opinions have been received.

Thirdly, Chris notes that it is vital for executives to set targeted objectives to ensure that employees are not merely present in their workplace but are comfortable enough to bring their whole selves into work embodying all the experiences and struggles that their life encompasses. The intrinsic value of the same shared vision has the potential of eliciting beneficial ideas and utilities that would otherwise probably remain uncharted and unheard.

Chris concludes the talk by saying the initiation of adopting a positive work culture would be to start a conversation and ask the difficult question of what goes unheard in the workplace. This gesture of receptivity and openness would be the first indispensable step towards embracing a positive work culture that will only bring out the very best in employees.