Energize & engage your workplace
How positive is your current culture, on a scale of 1 to 10? It’s a question that participants of the online Positive Culture Academy work with, if needed. What would your score be, and would you like to improve it? One participant shared: “Maybe a 2 or 3. My current company culture is becoming less and less positive. We had …
I know. Not everyone likes to read non-fiction on vacation. It’s great to read an adventure story, a detective, or a novel. However, if you feel you’d like to catch up on culture, leadership, and change here’s my favorite list of non-fiction books at this point. On positive leadership, change, and culture Arbinger Institute, Leadership and Self Deception – Getting …
A CEO invited some executives to a meeting from two different levels. He asked a question and then went around the table for ideas. When he got to one of the lower level executives, he said: “Sorry, I just want to hear from (the higher level) leaders” and moved on. Did you ever encounter such a situation? What happened? In …
Guest post by Kartik Shah Have you ever noticed how pilgrims mentally, spiritually and/or physically prepare themselves for a pilgrimage by engaging in some customary rituals? For example, the Muslims shave their heads, cut their nails and don white robes before going for the hajj. Similarly, the Hindus, the Buddhists, and the Jains observe penance and abstain from sexual activity to …
Exciting news: the publisher offers the Kindle version of my Positive Culture book at only 99 cents from 26-28 June! Benefit from these 3 magic days and download your copy today. In this post, you’ll find 16 quotes from my book as a super condensed mini-course! Which one is your favorite and why…? Don’t have a Kindle? Don’t worry, I …
What’s my Why? Why do I care about contributing to positive organizations? Maybe because I know what it’s like to be “doing time” within a locked building, ruled by the clock. I’ve been there. I also know that we are blessed to live now: we have many more opportunities than our ancestors ever had. It’s vital that we develop our …
Is your workplace positive and loving? Does the question make you flinch? The word love is reserved for the private space. It is a taboo at work. But that doesn’t mean that there’s no love in the workplace! We call it differently, we express it differently than at home, but all positive organizations practice love. Moreover, fresh research shows that …
Here’s the overview of the last part of my book: “Positive Power at Work – How to make a positive difference from any position.” Are you able, willing and ready to be a Positive Agent? This part about “WE” focuses on the team and the organization. How can you create a culture where people thrive and achieve shared goals? How …
Now we get to the last part of this positive power series, where we focus on the whole organization. So far, we have seen Interaction Interventions that you can deploy individually or with a few other Positive Agents to influence your group or organization. The motto of Interaction Interventions is: If you want to go fast, travel alone… (and you …
Letting go is vital for cultures, leaders, employees, and organizations. Without letting go, organizations whither away due to micro-management. Too much control stifles engagement, agility, innovation, collaboration, responsibility, and so on! It’s dangerous. Ricardo Semler One of the most provocative and inspiring initiators of letting go of control is Ricardo Semler. In 1982, he took over his father’s company Semco …
Learning is crucial for a positive culture, but it hardly ever happens without mistakes, hickups, or failures. Learning fast, and learning from others’ failures as well, helps your organization become more agile and better. In conventional cultures, however, it’s not common to admit failures even though failure is critical to success. In nuclear plant accidents, the NASA Challenger disaster and …
In this blog, I’ve been reviewing many small, personal ways to contribute to a more positive culture at work. But what if you want to engage your whole organization? In that case, a culture survey might be a good starting point. It helps to map where you are now and where you would like to go and start the conversation. …
