COLIN ON CULTURE
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A case of the Mondays
We all have bad days but your mood is contagious and spreading negativity is a culture killer.
The Five Levels of Management Mastery
Middle managers are the difference between organisation success and failure and yet most managers lack the training to make a real difference every day. I share my experiences to help fast-track your learning.
Saying no
One of the best skills we can learn, therefore, is the ability to say ‘no’ and sometimes, ‘no’ is a complete sentence. That’s not to say that we deliver the message rudely or with attitude, indeed the opposite is true.
Agency, the culture secret
When employees are given the opportunity to define their own working conditions — how they connect, behave, work together and be creative — they gain not only a sense of pride in what they’ve built, but also a determination to uphold it.
Anchored in the past
The stories in your culture will determine whether you sail or sink.
Toxic culture and UFOs
In almost all cases of reports into toxic cultures, the first response from senior leaders has either been to deny the existence of toxic culture or else to pretend that what’s obvious to everyone else, isn’t obvious to them.
Winning
Winning is not about crushing the competition or stepping on colleagues; it's about creating an environment where winning becomes a natural outcome of doing things properly.
The quote that never was
In every office, every sports team, every startup, every Fortune 500 company, we've seen it happen. The perfect strategy, meticulously planned, beautifully presented... and it falls flat. Not because the strategy was wrong, but because the people weren't ready.
Cynics and sceptics
What’s the difference and why does it matter for your workplace culture?
Is it still worth doing?
The real measure of a project isn't the resources it consumes but the value that the change creates. When we fixate on time and cost, we optimise activity for predictability instead of possibility.
Entitled or just badly managed?
There’s a trend for CEOs to blame ‘entitled’ employees for the resistance to returning to the office - but take a look in the mirror and you’ll see a lack of managerial skill reflected.
Potential has no expiry date
It’s never too late to learn that new skill, try that new thing or achieve your burning ambition! What’s stopping you starting?
If you can't stand the heat
The culinary (and corporate) world has long perpetuated the myth that enduring abuse is somehow a badge of honour, a rite of passage that transforms good chefs and leaders into great ones.
Fact vs. future
If you're going to invest time in defining the key elements of your culture, do it with conviction and purpose.
Loading luggage in an ice-storm
The most memorable leaders are the ones who aren’t afraid to park strategy in order to get stuck in at the coalface.
5 steps to behaviour change
The behaviours we demonstrate at work influence those around us and have a profound affect on the culture and employee experience. In this episode I walk through the five step REACH framework and how it can guide behaviour change.
Wearing the hat
Have you got a culture people would be proud to champion - as employees or customers?
Culture decay
Dysfunctional workplaces need intervention precisely because they're dysfunctional. Every day you wait the problems become more entrenched, behaviours become more normalised and cynicism grows deeper.
Broken promises
Promises create expectation. When we don’t deliver on that expectation, trust - and more - is lost. Make yours a culture that can keep its promises.
How can we make it easier?
When a workforce grows or a start-up scales, the culture also evolves and more structure is required. But that doesn’t and shouldn’t mean things have to get harder too.