22 Keys to Creating a Meaningful Workplace -- Part 5

The Community Keys

Dialogue

The talk free zone extends to all sorts of organizations, regardless of size, location, or mission.

In a meaningful workplace, when employees need to work through a problem or issue or opportunity, they have freedom and opportunities to engage in open conversation.

As for the character of these conversations, honesty and respect are core principles.

Dialogue has more to do with open ears than with open mouths.

It's not easy being a great listener.  Tips:

Start with the one topic that seems to be the most manageable, then construct a dialogue that widely involves employees.

It's a long-term undertaking.  Stay on constant alert for situations that are calling out for conversations.  When they show up on your radar screen, you need to jump into action.

Avoid the inclination to work things out immediately with little or no involvement from others.

If you think an upcoming group conversation might get unwieldy, establish a specific and doable goal for the get-together (communicate it to everyone).

It is easy to think of dialogue as an event, but it needs to become an ongoing process.

There are no easy steps to constructive dialogue.  Try brainstorming, sticky notes, and confidential writing.

One of the most powerful tools is the "open space conference".

When it comes to ownership, creativity, and unity abound diverse people, the open space approach is stunningly simple and effective. It gives participants the ability to shape the conference.

Participants are prompted to work with the theme and identify topics for discussion.

It doesn't take long for the schedule to fill up with topics.

Rules that govern these sessions:

1. Whoever comes are the right people.
2. Whatever happens is the only thing that could.
3. Whenever it starts is the right time.
4. Whenever it's over, it's over.

The Law of Two Feet:  Every person can move to another place.

Create a space where people can go for conversation.

Equip the room with chairs, but keep tables to a minimum.

Pull folks together for some kind of social gathering.

Look for something that calls for celebration, but make sure the festivities are held at work during regular work hours.

Remember to keep things simple and restrained.

Relationship Building

People are social beings.  A workplace that denies this might be efficient but won't be effective in the long-run (or meaningful).

A meaningful workplace abounds with opportunities to build relationships.

When it comes to relationship building, there's no substitute for action, and it has to start with you.

Reach out and get back in touch with some of your long-lost contacts.

The next time you start some daunting task, reject the urge to deal with it all by yourself.

Opportunity to build relationships exist at meetings when folks are together and away from their phones, computers, and routine work.

Transform those routine meetings into relationship factories.

Quick-to-the-rescue response implies that people are unable to solve their own problems.

If someone who's involved in a situation approaches you for help, avoid taking sides.

Look to the outside--and that means tightening your connections to suppliers.

Shut the organization down for one day and spend the time getting to know one another.

Many communication tools out there can be used to communicate including email, online message boards, and electronic chat rooms. (these can strengthen your existing relationships and establish new ones.

We also need to stay keenly aware that technology can keep us apart.

Service

People aren't just willing to help out and to serve, they're eager.

Dialogue can lead to relationship building and both can lead to service.

In a healthy workplace  community, people actively reach out to help each other and are willing to seek help when they need it.

Service works in a wonderfully reciprocal way.  When you get service, you want to give it--and when you give service, people want to return the favor.

It's also essential to be service minded on the outside.

Engage customers in a conversation regarding service.

The way in which you and your colleagues talk about service is guaranteed to reflect and affect your actions.

Consider assembling some of your colleagues for a free-flowing conversation about service.

Go on the prow for narrowly defined jobs, and work to expand the roles as much as possible.

Spend time in other areas, offer help beyond your usual work unit.

If you're still looking for ways to strengthen service in the workplace, check around in your community.

Acknowledgement

In a meaningful workplace acknowledgement is routine and widely inclusive.

Make a point of acknowledging the small victories and honoring all those inputs such as hard work, creativity, commitment, and failure.

Tow mistaken notions:

Who among you makes a difference day in and day out?  If their efforts have gone without acknowledgment, you've got some work to do.  Be as inclusive as possible.

Work to make it a routine part of your everyday life.  A simple "thank you" can transform a relationship.

Ways to broadcast the good news:  newsletters, traditional bulletin boards, online bulletin boards, email, intranets, and web sites.

A wealth of research shows that extrinsic rewards do more harm than good.

Rewards create a divide between two groups:  the rewarders and the rewarded.

Genuine acknowledgement is grounded in respect and gratitude.

Questions to seed the conversation:

Avoid crating rules that require awards or award programs.

Oneness

Genuine teamwork isn't easy at all.   Achieving true oneness in the workplace is a complex ongoing proposition.

Many of us have been living for years with certain paradigms and approaches that all but guarantee a lack of oneness in our workplaces.

We are taught to take on complex problems and projects by breaking them into smaller parts.

Because organizations are inherently complex, many are set up and managed based on this approach.  That's why there are separate divisions, work units, and functions.

The situation goes from bad to worse when internal competition enters the mix.

Fragmentation and internal competition can be eliminated by people (This is a Herculean change-management challenge).

Awareness is the essential starting point.

One way to stay alert while also stirring awareness among your colleagues is to have regular conversations about these topics.

These are likely to be vigorous exchanges, especially at first, when people stake out their positions.

If you're trying to create a true sense of unity, all these I-win-you-lose approaches are leaps in the wrong direction.

The solution starts with awareness, and awareness happens with dialogue.

Fragmentation and competition often get recharged when ever work units undertake some kind of planning.

The challenge is to shatter the bubble and involve more people in what should be thought of as a visioning process.

Ways to turn oneness into action:

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