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"Bottom-line" Culture vs. a Healthy One?

Written by: Terri Benincasa

Article Overview: Since the mid-90's, research has shown that when people love their job and get great value out of the experience, productivity and profits are up, turn-over and burn-out are down. In fact, I recommend organizations consciously use fun as a cultural expectation, because it will increase employee and customer retention/relations, motivate individuals/teams, and ultimately improve overall productivity.

"Bottom-line" Culture vs. a Healthy One?

In Fun Works: Creating Places Where People Love to Work (second edition), author Leslie Yerkesdebunks the myth that fun andprofitability are mutually exclusive - and I couldn't agree more.

After all,generally, people spend more time at work than at any other single activity in their lives,yet most companiesfeel that employees having funwhile workingis at best a sign of a lack of commitment to their jobs; at worst a down-right detriment to the business' bottom-line. It'sunprofessional and counterproductive, they claim!Horse hockey, as Col. Potter in MASH would say.

The key is not whether the two can be integrated, but how well your company trains/encourages staff, through its culture, to fully enjoy what they do as the direct means to improved profits.Since the 1990's, research has clearlyshown that when people love their jobs and get great value out of their workexperience, productivity and profits are up whileturn-over and burn-out are down.

In fact, I recommend organizationsconsciously use fun as a cultural expectation, becauseit willincrease employee and customer retention/relations, motivate individuals/teams, and ultimately improve overall productivity.

Yerkes details precisely how eleven companies the likes of Southwest Airlines and Prudential Insurance integrate fun into the normal course of their businesses' operations,based uponthe followingprinciples:

• Give permission to perform in whatever way works for the employee
• Challenge your own biases
• Capitalize on creative spontaneity
• Create great processes and then trust them
• Value a diversity of styles
• Expand boundaries
• Encourageauthenticity
• Be unafraid to make room for many choices
• Hire good people and get out of their way
• Embrace expansive thinking and risk taking
• Celebrate successes regularly, and "catch people doing things right" rather than wrong

Inthis second edition, Yerkes conducted follow-up interviews withthe original eleven companiesfrom the first edition to seeif they've managed to maintain a prosperous and fun environment in the face of a recession and national turmoil.

And not surprisingly, she discovered that all have continued to thrive, not one of them wasundone by having a culture of "fun and work," and that, if anything, the combined emphasisonhigh profitabilitywith a healthy, positive culturedidn't justkeep them in business,but was the source of their growth.

Here's just a few of the enormous benefits Yerkes found byaligningwork with fun:

• Stimulated creativity and innovation
• Commitment and ownership at all levels of the organizational chart
• High employeemorale (by among other things, countering the effects of stress and decreasing burn-out)
• Enhancedproductivity
• Reducedconflicts and improved conflict resolution
• Reduced absenteeism
• Stronger andlonger-lasting customer relationships

Creating places where people love to work while retaining the goal of increased revenuesrequires creating a culture where individuals can freely bring the best of themselves to work each day (that is what you hired, is it not?).

So get to it - in this economy this is just the edge you need to not just survive, but thrive!

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  A HEALTHY COMPANY CULTURE FOR A HEALTHY BOTTOM-LINE
  Assessing Your Nonprofit's Culture - Seven Questions To Ponder
  Getting An Outside Look

Article Tags: authenticity, biases, boundaries, business bottom line, col potter, customer retention, detriment, expectation, experience productivity, horse hockey, leslie yerkes, li li, li value, mash, myth, profitability, prudential, prudential insurance, southwest airlines, spontaneity



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