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The workforce has seen better days. The once highly sought-after "work yourself to death" model has gone the way of Y2K. Corporations can no longer look past the employee's well-being, and to move forward, taking risks will lead to development, growth, and ultimately success.
Terence Mauri
I had the pleasure of sitting down and discussing several concepts related to risk-taking with Terence Mauri, a global expert who helps business leaders innovate, adapt, and succeed in the age of disruption. He shared with me one of the most critical topics businesses should be contemplating: not taking a risk is a risk itself.
"Taking a risk is about learning, growth, courage, speaking up over silence, taking the initiative, and feeling more alive and empowered," said Mauri.
The "if it's not broke, don't fix it" phrase is being held together by school glue in organizations, yet the hamster wheel continues to be in motion for team members. We're still doing things the same way. Executives and leaders are employing a 'rinse and repeat' mantra in the workplace, yet, employees are at higher rates of unhappiness than ever before while feeling overwhelmed. (For some, it's a case of being highly under-whelmed).
Mauri believes organizations should take more risks to embrace the company culture and employee experience. He said, "Being bold and taking risks is less risky than doing the same thing over and over again. Most leaders and HR departments are trapped in 20th-century mindsets. Unlearning the 'always-done' ways and re-learning what needs to be done. We're great at adding complexity but are biased against subtraction and taking risks."
To pivot toward a change, executives need to rethink what they're doing, where they add value, and where they need to take more risks to reimagine relevancy. In turn, this can add growth.
Leaders should instead create a team-like environment where employees can come together, learn from one another, share their stories, and have a voice, rather than telling them to show up, sit down, do their jobs, and be irrelevant. Some companies have already made the shift, and it's creating massive levels of psychological safety in their workplaces among their employees.
"By doing this," said Mauri, "it leads to unlocking return on investment but also return on intelligence. To unlearn the always-done ways, employees share stories, so failure is not a badge of shame but of humility. What are executives doing to fight cultures of conformity which is the default in most organizations? What can they do to start activating curiosity right at the human level? One of the best ways to outpace these forces of disruption is to be a learner, not a knower. To be curious, not to be a conformer."
One of the other key factors is that there must be trust between leaders and team members. Trust sets the foundation, and once built and stable, more people will be open to express, imagine, innovate, unlearn, learn, have courage, develop, and grow. Mauri said, "Trust is the only human currency, and organizations have to go big on truth, trust, and transparency." Trust has to be there first to get employees to have a team-like workplace that centers around openness.
Mauri's point about fluidity and continuous transformation was one of the things I enjoyed about our discussion. He believes these are critical facets of a thriving organizational culture.
Mauri shared a story about the Japanese work 'Henka.' "In Japanese," said Mauri, "Henka means continuous transformation and evolution. As humans, we should adopt this attitude of Henka - continuous learning, growth, and re-imagination." Mauri believes that the future of work involves fluidity with human-led, tech-enabled, intentionally diverse, and purpose-driven organizations. So, what are we missing?
In sum, Return on Intelligence or ROI, as Mauri calls it. The missing component is a cognitive organization that creates cultures to empower people to work on the most challenging problems with the right tools. "If you have an organization that has high levels of return on intelligence, return on imagination, and return on integrity, you're going to create an organization that is a talent magnet," he summarized.
People want to know that they are making a daily difference, that their work is valued, and they possess a higher purpose in completing it. As a result, leaders will have to give more trust to their employees and take the chance to allow people to prove themselves. As a result, the organization can become an agency of development, growth, and success.
With agency, a culture is created where risk tolerance is high, psychological safety is apparent, failure is framed as a growth opportunity, and prioritizing autonomy over control is valued.
Do we belong and feel connected where we work? Ultimately, each of us should. Learning to listen to one another, pause, and collaborate will help to lead the necessary shift in the workplace's long-overdue transformation.
The ultimate goal is to have cultures of curiosity and not cultures of conformity. That's where Mauri is spot on in his research and analysis.
Watch the interview with Terence Mauri and Dan Pontefract in full below or listen to it via the Leadership NOW series podcast.
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Check out my award-winning 4th book, “Lead. Care. Win. How to Become a Leader Who Matters.” Thinkers50 #1 rated thinker, Amy. C. Edmondson of Harvard Business School, calls it “an invaluable roadmap.”
