Org Culture

Are They Employees or Widgets? The Results of People-as-Commodity Cultures

By gothamCulture
Published at In Category Blog Tags: , , ,
employees are more than commodities

Newsflash: People aren’t possessions. So why do we insist on treating workers like commodities?

Once upon a time, employees and companies enjoyed a mutually beneficial relationship. Workers stayed with one company for their entire careers, taking pride in their output and putting their noses to the grindstone for the sake of the organization. In return, companies offered pension plans, training, development opportunities, and reasonable work hours.

While those days might seem like distant memories, the churn-and-burn mentality of the modern workplace isn’t sustainable.

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How to Assess Your Organization’s DevOps Readiness

By gothamCulture
Published at In Category Blog Tags: , ,
how to assess devops readiness

Today, organizations must delight customers, beat competitors to market, and pivot quickly when needed. The increasing rate of change in today’s complex business environment demands more value in less time. And quite often, the ability to deliver quality software quickly and reliably is what drives success in this new world of business value.

In finance, the most innovative banks have developed technology that allows us to deposit and manage money from our smartphones. Apple and Pandora help us discover and purchase music within seconds of release. Successful retailers are finding innovative ways to eliminate friction in the customer experience, allowing us to purchase, make returns, and offer recommendations, all without stepping outside our homes.

When organizations keep up with the velocity of technological change, they possess an undoubtable competitive advantage over their peers. And many of these innovative organizations are adopting a DevOps methodology to reach the velocities they need. But this methodology isn’t just about improving technology and revamping processes. Organizational culture plays a critical role in promoting the behaviors required to safely sustain the faster pace.

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4 Things You Don’t Need to Have a High Performance Culture

By gothamCulture
Published at In Category Blog Tags: , , ,
4 things you don't need in a high performance culture

We’ve all read the stories about startups making waves in their industry, and how they’re doing it from a once-destitute warehouse on the south side of town. We’re prone to conclude that these companies are sustaining high performance because they’ve broken down the (cubicle) walls that bind our ability to collaborate, innovate, and achieve our full potential.

Unfortunately, misconceptions about high performing culture develop from these stories, and many well-intentioned business leaders have tried to emulate these startups in their quest to improve their culture and performance.

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The Not-So-Simple Secrets of Successful Culture Change

By gothamCulture
Published at In Category Blog Tags: , ,
secrets of successful culture change

As the saying goes, even the longest journey starts with just one step.

Over the years, we’ve engaged with many clients who are dedicated to creating large-scale, significant, and sustainable culture change in their organizations in an effort to drive success. Unfortunately, many of these well-intentioned executives believe there is a silver bullet—some grand gesture of change—that will accomplish their goals.

While significant changes can and do drive sustainable performance improvements, truly transformational change results from a few deceptively simple things.

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Culture Eats Strategy For Lunch

By gothamCulture
Published at In Category Blog Tags: , ,
culture eats strategy

Written by Shawn Parr

Get on a Southwest flight to anywhere, buy shoes from Zappos.com, pants from Nordstrom, groceries from Whole Foods, anything from Costco, a Starbucks espresso, or a Double-Double from In N’ Out, and you’ll get a taste of these brands’ vibrant cultures.

Culture is a balanced blend of human psychology, attitudes, actions, and beliefs that combine to create either pleasure or pain, serious momentum or miserable stagnation. A strong culture flourishes with a clear set of values and norms that actively guide the way a company operates. Employees are actively and passionately engaged in the business, operating from a sense of confidence and empowerment rather than navigating their days through miserably extensive procedures and mind-numbing bureaucracy.

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Why Culture is the Heart of Organizational Innovation

By gothamCulture
Published at In Category Blog Tags: ,
culture and organizational innovation

If you mention “innovation” to most business leaders, it wouldn’t be a surprise if they begin to think about Tesla, GE, or 3M. Compared to these giants of innovation, continually pushing the bleeding edge of what’s possible through massive investments in research and development, you may feel like innovation is out of reach.

No matter your organization’s size or industry, however, a culture of innovation may be necessary to evolve and succeed in today’s constantly changing business environment.

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Are You Investing Enough In Your Team’s Problem Solving Skills?

By gothamCulture
Published at In Category Blog Tags: , ,
investing in problem solving skills

As we explored in my last article, The Martian, by Andy Weir, provides a dramatic parallel to some of our most challenging professional situations.  We previously talked about empowering our teams and people. In this article, we’ll focus on the remaining two business questions we posed:

How important is our ability to solve problems and depend on our individual skills and strengths? And how critical is our investment not only in our teams but in each individual?

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Leadership, Culture and the Art of Caring About the Little Things

By gothamCulture
Published at In Category Blog Tags: ,
leadership culture and caring about the little things

Written by Alf Rehn

There are many ways to destroy a culture. It can be destroyed by arrogance, hypocrisy or hubris. It can be demolished through bad leadership, nepotism, unchecked misogyny or other unethical practices.

But, a pervasive lack of care might be the most effective way to destroy a culture. Whereas the list of sins above is obvious pathologies of an organization in decay, they are visible, and often manageable, vices. We tend to pay a lot of attention to these vices as they, by way of their visibility, draw our eye. And we tend to overestimate their importance as we underestimate the small things in our organizations.

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The 4 Foundations You Need to Build Trust in the Workplace

By gothamCulture
Published at In Category Blog Tags: , ,
build trust in the workplace

Trust is a fickle thing. It takes time to build and can be destroyed in a heartbeat. In the workplace, trust is undeniably important. The level of trust an employee has for his or her peers and leadership often defines the line between a happy, engaged worker and an unproductive body filling a cubicle chair.

Yes, trust is a critical component of every successful workplace culture. So why is it so difficult to achieve?

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