What's That About?
By Les Mottosky
The Canadian news story headline read: "Union vows to keep fighting 4-day return-to-office mandate for federal public servants".
Aside from the irony that this is a standoff of the Canadian Government's own making, that headline leads to another conclusion; one that plagues most businesses and all governments. It's an indication of a stagnating culture.
'Stagnating' is an adjective that isn't exactly accurate because no culture is static. They're all dynamic; defined and reinforced by every decision made, every word uttered, every action taken in every moment. It's a multi-person organism. A culture is either strategic or haphazard, directed or directionless, growing or festering, proactive or reactive, effective or ineffective. Seth Godin kinda' nailed it when he defined culture as 'People like us, do things like this'.
When workers decide 'Yeah, we don't want to work 4 days a week in the office', that isn't a rejection of the culture, but a devastating contribution to it.
What they are rejecting is the best part of work. And optimal communication. (Only about 7% 0f transmission impact is verbal where feelings and attitudes are concerned.)
People are the best part of everything.
A home, travelling abroad, concerts, sports, recreation, emergencies and meals. Even the last dance; the greatest fear of many people is dying alone.
People – and the quality of those relationships – is the determining factor of our quality of life.
This is why hiring can't ever be taken lightly. Bringing a new person on-board is a vote for the culture you aspire to operate in.
More important than a candidate's resume, are their values. A 70/30 split of values questions to experience questions in the interview process will serve you well. The principle is to hire for mindset and train for skill. Bend over backwards to add people who are curious, adaptable, and eager to learn. The rest can be taught.
If you're bringing in curious, adaptable and eager learners, you'll have an organization that reflects the same.
What customer doesn't want to work with that?
In an era of mind-bending, reality-defying disruption, it's time to become uncompromising about equipping your culture to meet the challenges and opportunities of our modern uncertainty circus.
And just like a circus, you'll notice the best part of your time at work is the people; conversations, meetings, ideas and results.
The evidence will be in your face and on the bottom line.
But for those to max out, people of a similar feather have to be together.
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Les Mottosky
Adaptation Strategist // I help organizations turn creativity into their competitive advantage by aligning leadership, culture and strategy to unlock adaptive innovations.
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