In this third episode of Culture Speak I discuss the characteristics of a pleasant culture, where emotional intelligence is high, but everything is just, well, a bit ‘nice’.

Key takeaways:

• Emotional intelligence and engagement are key workplace factors.

• Pleasant cultures can lead to stagnation despite empathy.

• Respect is crucial in team dynamics, even without friendship.

• Gossip and backbiting can arise in pleasant cultures.

• Pleasant cultures often lack the challenge needed for growth.

• Blind optimism can hinder progress in organizations.

• Risk aversion is common in pleasant cultures.

• Culture change requires engagement and skill development.

• Organizations must align their engagement levels with employee expectations.

• The Five Cultures quiz can help assess workplace culture.

Chapters:

00:00 Understanding Pleasant Cultures

06:18 The Challenges of Pleasant Cultures

In this second episode of Culture Speak I discuss the importance of emotional intelligence and engagement in work culture and highlight the detrimental effects of stagnant cultures, where individuals prioritise personal interests over teamwork

Key takeaways:

• Emotional intelligence and engagement are crucial for a positive work culture.

• Stagnant cultures are characterised by individuals prioritising personal interests.

• Low engagement leads to high attrition rates and poor performance.

• Feedback and accountability are essential for team success.

• A lack of consequences for poor behavior fosters stagnation.

• Teamwork requires collective agreement and commitment.

• Cultural stagnation can be more frustrating than toxic environments.

• Generational shifts have changed perceptions of teamwork and individualism.

• Organisations must address poor performance to improve culture.

• Optimism is often lacking in stagnant work environments.

Chapters:

00:00: Understanding Emotional Intelligence and Engagement

02:41: The Impact of Stagnant Cultures

05:42: Consequences of Poor Performance in Organisations

In this first episode of Culture Speak, I introduce the concept of organisational culture, emphasising its importance and talking through the elements that shape a work environment.

I discuss the necessity of committed leadership, capable management, and a common language to foster a vibrant culture.

The episode also highlights the significance of emotional intelligence and engagement in creating a positive workplace culture, setting the stage for further exploration in subsequent episodes.

Chapters: 

00:00: Introduction to Culture Speak

02:55: Understanding Organizational Culture

04:44: The Three C's of Vibrant Culture

07:04: The Role of Middle Managers in Culture

10:23: Emotional Intelligence and Engagement in Culture 

Takeaways:

• Culture is the shared values, behaviours, and practices.

• You get the culture that you choose to build.

• Culture is perpetual and requires ongoing effort.

• Committed executive support is essential for cultural change.

• Middle managers play a crucial role in shaping culture.

• A common language around culture is necessary for feedback and accountability.

• Emotional intelligence helps build strong relationships at work.

• Engagement is a two-way street between the organisation and individuals.

• Culture is built at a team level, not just top-down.

• The goal is to create fantastic places to work.

To take the culture quiz head to www.fiveculturesquiz.com

#culture #communication #leadership #motivation

The jostling between consulting and training organisations for AI transformation programmes has begun. However, rather than the 'technology agility' approaches that they're selling to implement AI, what's required is a change in culture, or 'emotional agility.'

On this episode of the Colin on Culture podcast I provide 5 behaviours that employees need to adopt in order to build an AI-ready culture.

There's a lot of performance with regards to culture and values are one of the worst culprits with 75% of employees in one survey saying that the correlation between the organisation stating them versus the daily practice of them is zero!

On this episode of the Colin on Culture podcast I provide 5 signs that your values may be worthless.

How we work - our culture - is perpetual. It changes all of the time and is shaped by 3 distinct factors. Once leaders and employees understand these fators they are better able to respond and build a programme of events that ensure that the culture continually evolves to be relevant to the way people want to live and work today.

If you are interested in the printed resource that I talk about in this podcast you can get this from www.colindellis.com/resources

According to research, over $3tn is wasted every year on excess bureaucracy ranging from simple process flaws to overly risk averse people and control freaks! In this video I not only talk about the issues that bureaucracy creates, but also provide a model to better understand how it arises and three actions you can take to stop it.

Link to research: https://www.garyhamel.com/sites/default/files/uploads/three-trillion-dollars.pdf

Sign up to my daily blog: www.colindellis.com/boom

In this episode of the Colin on Culture podcast I talk about the growing problem of meetings and provide strategies on the things that you can do to ensure that they don't kill your culture.

The recent BBC culture review highlighted a number of issues, not least, what behaviour is considered to be acceptable and what's not. In this episode I discuss the findings and also talk about how your organisation can avoid these 'grey' behaviours.

Read the BBC report at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/aboutthebbc/documents/bbc-workplace-culture-report.pdf

Middle managers are the difference between success and failure and yet not only do they recognise that they don't have the skills to succeed, organisations recognise that they underinvest in them too!

On this episode of the Colin on Culture podcast I provide insights and statistics on how to tackle the middle management crisis.