This short TED series video on ‘The Way We Work’ shares 8 tips on building organisations that people enjoy working for.
Your employees are adults
Assume that everyone goes to work each day to do something amazing. Simple? But how many organisations introduce systems that treat people like children?
The job of management isn’t to control people, it’s to build great teams
If management focuses on tick-a-box activities around processes, it will miss the key metrics. The key is happy customers and stakeholders, not a process.
People want to do work that means something
And after they have achieved success, they should be free to move on to something new. Careers are a journey and staff that leave on good terms having accomplished something great at an organisation are likely to become your biggest ambassadors.
Everyone in your organisation should understand what it does
An organisation that shares knowledge of its mission; what each team is working on; the challenges and achievements – such an organisation creates a collaborative and agile work setting. People respond when they understand how their work fits into the bigger picture.
Everybody in the organisation should be able to handle the truth
Self-explanatory really. This is usually done in the form of annual reviews and the like, but make it more instantaneous. “Hey, well done. What you are doing there is awesome…”
Your organisation needs to live its values
Leaders need to model the behaviour and values as the example which is visible to others. Team members will follow actions rather than words – just as our children do!
All start-up ideas are stupid
Which can apply to all new ideas. Because if they weren’t stupid, then people would already be doing them.
Every organisation needs to be excited about change
It’s really exciting to think about the way it’s going to be. Rather than being nostalgic and thinking about the way it was.
How well does your team align with these 8 tips? Is your team one that people enjoy working for? What is the first tip that you could implement in the short term to change for the better?
Watch the quick 5-minute TED series talk here to learn more about these tips.
Want to watch even more TED Talks we have shared. Check them all out here.