On June 23rd, Margaret Graziano, a well-respected high-performance culture and leadership strategist, presented a well in-depth take on HR Leaders’ roles in transforming their Organizational Culture in their workplaces.
The one-hour webinar revolved around the six keys to transforming workplace culture, which tied to the acronym:
MORTAR.
M – Motivate and Inspire for a bigger purpose.
Motivating and inspiring starts with the purpose of the enterprise. The mission of the organization needs to encourage every individual in the workforce. Everyone has their own unique inspirations and personal motivational drivers. When the passion of each individual is known and relates to the bigger picture, high-performance culture thrives. It’s important to understand, in order to inspire and motivate others, leaders themselves must be in a motivational mental state.
O – Onboard people through the lens of the organizational mission and core values.
When hiring, the “why” of the organization must be clear and remain transparent throughout the life of the employees’ journey. Hiring the right people involves knowing and understanding the mission and vision of the organization, and how the new hire’s role impacts that mission and vision. On-boarding people through the lens of the organization’s purpose and core values gives the employee insight and experience that empowers them to integrate the core values in how they deliver results in their role.
R – Rein in unproductive behaviors
As leaders of high-performance organizations it is essential to have high standards and to communicate those standards early and often. It’s impossible to foster results with high hopes that only live in the leaders head. Intentions for high performance must be backed up by consistent behaviors and actions from the leader and the employee. Standards must be communicated clearly and regularly. Along with accountability for delivering on standards of performance, employees need guidance and coaching on how to navigate challenges and remove constraints. A format for open communication, regular feedback, course correction, and acknowledgment of successes is the foundation of high-performance.
T – Training and Development in being the kind of human that makes a difference.
Functional training includes “people readiness.” Most of the younger generation say they don’t have the tools or motivation to lead. To train people correctly, leaders need to provide the means of training and guide them in their development. People need the tools to be resilient. When Covid-19 came along, millions of people had to adjust to working remotely. Organizations that foster a high-performance culture and regularly provide their employees with development in resilience and emotional intelligence training are the organizations that navigate powerfully through uncertainty, chaos, and stress.
A – Align priorities, give people a focus, and coach them in staying on track.
Aligning your people with the top priorities of the bigger picture results in higher productivity and greater momentum towards organizational goals. When the collective is aligned and focused, productivity soars, collaboration excels and people work in synergy for a unified purpose.
R – Recognize incremental improvements and gain momentum.
Lastly, there needs to be recognition for both small and big accomplishments. When progress is made, people need to experience the incremental steps as wins. Acknowledging people for taking ownership and delivering results causes the experience of momentum. The only way to go from an operating state of low momentum to an operating state of high momentum is to keep people focused, acknowledge what is working. If success is not recognized, people feel unappreciated and undervalued. When people feel that way for an elongated period of time they disconnect and get disengaged.
Throughout the acronym based webinar, Margaret tied in current events and shined the light on why now more than ever; a constructive organizational culture is necessary!
The webinar touched on the effect of having five different generations in the current workforce and how each has a different way of working and being. Baby Boomers are beginning to leave the workforce and it’s the Millennials and the Gen Zs who are holding organizations and leaders accountable for their social responsibility. A focus on culture within the workplace is appealing to younger generations. To have a thriving organization culture that unlocks the wealth of talent, capacity, and human spirit within, we must recognize what everyone, in each generation, has a need to succeed.
Lastly, there was a “Perfect Storm Analogy.” The perfect storm talks about outside factors that are affecting talent, including demographics, psycho-graphics, social injustice, lack of people wanting or knowing how to lead, uncertain economic times, and Covid-19. A workforce can rise above and adapt “perfect storm” factors when everyone is on the same page and working in collaboration.
Organizational Culture is a topic that is not going away anytime soon, and MORTAR is eye-opening on what it takes to shape the ideal. KeenAlignment has an abundant amount of proven philosophies, strategies, and programs that enable committed leaders to shape a constructive and high-performance organizational culture that keeps people engaged, inspired, and contributing at the highest levels of performance. Check out MORTAR on demand by clicking here or for more information go to Keenalignment.com