Building Generative Cultures

Toxic workplaces kill performance…but it doesn’t have to be that way.

You are sick of the complaints about your culture’s “low morale,” “being too siloed,” “too nice,” “risk averse,” “cut throat,” “highly politicized,” ….and you’re tired of the exhausting reality that the labels are, well, at least partly true. You’ve tried writing new values, hosting “Town Hall” meetings, special incentive and retention programs, casual Friday’s, team room Mondays, early-weekend Thursdays, summer hours and happy hours, take your daughter to work days, flexible work hours, employee satisfaction surveys, work-life balance seminars, subsidizing fitness center memberships, skip-level meetings, cultural sensitivity training, putting in a nutritional menu in the cafeteria, affinity groups, “morale booster” newsletters, ombudsman and buddies, employee suggestion programs that win weekends in Vegas.

And none of it has done a thing…other than make you even more sick and tired. And deep inside, you have the eerie feeling that it took more energy to do all of this than it would have to do something that would have actually worked. Yet the corrosive effects of the culture continue to negatively impact performance. You get it – the “soft stuff” really matters.

We get it, too. We understand how easy it is for organizations to unwittingly conspire with their own toxic environments, and further hemorrhage the human potential so desperately needed for the future. We have powerful and proven ways of building generative cultures that help counteract the toxic effects of degenerative cultures.

Will your next crisis be the result of one toxin too many?

Is this for you?

• Does your organization excessively value results or relationships at the expense of the other?
• Do you find yourself disquieted by some of your own unproductive behavioral choices, stunned at how the culture around you has influenced you in ways you never thought it could?
• Are the toxins of your workplace self-perpetuating – people love to get on the bandwagons of complaint, negativity, self-involvement, and pettiness?
• How many people are walking around your organization saying, “I love my job...”? What would happen if you tripled that number?
• Do people take pot shots at each other in meetings?
• Do you get perplexed when you hear others’ stories of how great their organizations are to work at?
• Would performance results improve if your culture were more inspiring, energizing, promoting of passionate commitment?