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Is your organization
experiencing downsizing, re-engineering, overwhelming
changes in technology and job descriptions, debilitating
stress, lack of trust, low employee morale, and a
dog-eat-dog atmosphere? Or, do you just want to increase
the level of job satisfaction for everyone in your
organization? If so, then you need this book. Internationally
known author Glanz offer a timely gift-book that provides
the hard at work with dozens of simple "brighten-your-day"
ideas. This is a wonderful little book filled with
the kind of motivation that will enliven communication,
increase employee appreciation, and add more fun to
the place where people spend most of their waking
hours.
The
CARE metaphor symbolized the elements of a spirited workplace:
C = Creative
Communication A =
Atmosphere and Appreciation for All R
= Respect and Reason for Being E
= Empathy and Enthusiasm
Creative Communication
For many organizations, communication has become a
deep rut full of dreary memos, dismal meetings, and negative feedback.
The result is unhappy, uninformed, or bored employees, and ultimately
poor customer service and lowered productivity. The more creatively a
message is sent, the greater the chance it will be noticed and heeded
amidst the clutter of communications that surround us. Here are some ideas for creative communication listed in the book:
- Place a sign in front of visitor parking spots
saying "Some of the nicest people in the world park here and
become our customers."
- Write creative ads, such as "We don't
want any satisfied customers . . . we want you to be
thrilled. Anything less would be a shame."
- Spice up your memos and other written
communications with artwork, cartoons, or clever sayings. More
people will actually read them.
Atmosphere
One of the most important elements of a spirited
workplace is an atmosphere that makes people feel good about coming to
work. People want to work in an environment in which they feel cared
for and respected, where they can have fun, and where their creative
spirits are encouraged.
- Create at atmosphere of encouragement. Speak
positively about each other and the organization.
- Be spontaneous with treats for employees to really
add a special joy to the atmosphere, one of saying
"thanks", especially when tough situations occur. On a hot
summer day bring in cool treats.
- Decorate for the holidays.
Appreciation for All
The most valuable assets in any organization are the
people who work there. Quality people produce quality products and
services. If you're able to increase the value of your co-workers, you
create a more valuable company.
- Affirm yourself and keep your emotional bank
account full. If you don't, you won't be able to show appreciation
to others.
- Appreciate your employees as individuals.
- "Wallow" in your company's successes. At
staff meetings, have a "Good News Hour" where employees
are invited to share good news about the company (and about their
personal lives).
- Hold a company-wide Appreciation Day.
Respect
"Good management is largely a matter of caring, because proper management involves caring for people, not
manipulating them." People in today's world
are starving for respect. They are tired of being treated like a
number, and technology is only increasing the tendency to become one's
social insurance number, account, or employee number to the exclusion
of our humanness.
Respect means honouring five unspoken requests that
people make of each other in any relationship. They are:
- Listen non-judgementally.
- Acknowledge differences without assigning blame.
- Give credit to others for their unique and special
qualities.
- Look for positive intentions.
- Tell others your truth compassionately.
Reason for Being
Because the old employment contract of always having
a job if you were only loyal to the organization is now gone, workers
must find a personal sense of mission or purpose in new ways. They must
direct their own career, they must plan on several different jobs and
perhaps even careers in a lifetime, and they must, as Tom Peters says,
"Repot themselves every five year."
With all these changes in the workplace, changes in
job descriptions, changes in technology occurring almost daily, and the
need to become a lifelong learner, individuals must have an anchor to
ground themselves. To be fully productive and happy, they must find a
"reason for being." If the organization for which they work
has a mission and a guiding set of values, the employee can buy into
those, or can choose to adjust his own purpose and values to exist in
that organization. If the individual AND the organization, however,
have no values or sense of purpose, the workplace will be sterile and
without spirit.
- Create a personal mission statement, a short
statement that expresses who you are and what your work is. It is a
statement of purpose and values to serve as a touchstone for all you
do.
- Add a personal signature to your work. Determine
what you can do to differentiate yourself from all the other people
doing the same work you do? For example, an auto mechanic puts his
card in every car he repairs. It reads, "This car cared for by
(his name)." Offer a little something more than others do.
- Create customer gifts that express the
organization's values. Involve your employees in thinking of
creative ways to incorporate your organizational vision and image
into gifts that can be both thought-provoking and lasting. These
become a constant reminder of a company with a spirited workplace.
"To love what you do and feel
that it matters - how could anything be more fun?" Katherine
Graham
Empathy
The author offers a quote from Stephen
Covey from his book The Seven Habits of Highly Successful People:
"Seek first to understand and then to be understood."
-
Care about the world outside your
lobby. Support your community to make life better for all,
particularly if there is a crisis of some kind. This is also a
wonderful way for an organization or work team to better learn to
work together and to demonstrate its values. Simple ways to do this
include collecting food for the local food bank all during the year,
not just at Christmas or Thanksgiving. Put together a Christmas
hamper for a needy family.
-
Make a caring phone call. Once a
week, call someone, either an external or internal customer, just to
let them know you are thinking of them. You will brighten someone's
day!
-
Use creative ways to support and
encourage others in their own growth and development.
-
Trade jobs with someone in your
organization for a day.
-
Go out of your way to welcome new
employees. If they begin their work in an atmosphere of caring, they
will be much more likely to continue adding to that
atmosphere.
Enthusiasm
Spread contagious enthusiasm around your
workplace! People will do things they might not want to do if someone else
inspires them with enthusiasm. As enthusiasm spreads throughout your
workplace, you will see employees who are more committed to their jobs,
who enjoy being at work, and who are having fun doing things they believe
in.
-
One powerful way to motivate
employees whose morale is low is to offer high-quality training that
impacts their self-esteem and gets their creative juices flowing.
Offer your employees a chance to hear a top-notch motivational
speaker.
-
Encourage social events and
celebrations. Celebrate real holidays, special successes, and any
other occasion. A workplace filled with a celebratory spirit will
bring joy to all, both employees and customers. Bring in
green-coloured popcorn on Saint Patrick's Day, have a costume or
pumpkin carving contest at Halloween, and perhaps most importantly,
celebrate each employee's birthday.
-
To keep your own spirit high and your
creative juices going, try at least one new thing each week. Tom
Peters suggests that each week you eat lunch with one new person in
your organization. Or, drive a different route to work one a day a
week. Read a new magazine or periodical every week - think of how
many new magazines or newsletters you could evaluate (and how much
you could expand your thinking) if you just read one new one
each week!
Summary: You Can Make a Difference!
Anita Roddick of The Body Shop, definitely
a spirited place to work, states these three things as her corporate
vision and values:
-
First, you have to have fun.
-
Second, you have to put love where
your labour is.
-
Third, you have to go in the opposite
direction to everyone else.
If you adopt only a few of the excellent
suggestions in this book, your workplace will greatly benefit. But, I have
a feeling you will find many ways of regenerating your organization after
reading Care Packages for the Workplace.
This book summary was written by
Louise Bower, Heart & Soul
Celebrations.
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