Sustaining a Healthy Organizational Collaborative Culture

00:06 The other issue that may come up in terms of organizations is sometimes certain departments do this so well, other departments don't do it at all. They don't value it.

00:17 They only do it when they're being seen as held accountable, maybe during an evaluation period.

00:23 But it has to be done across the organization.

00:25 And that's one of the things that may be hard for leaders, because the work we we're creating is always easy.

00:33 But the work, well, we have to address the issues and remind people of what the organizational goals are can be contentious at times.

00:40 But if we make it a habit, then guess what, everybody does it because it's a part of the organizational culture.

00:47 So finding creative ways for everybody to be able to contribute.

00:51 And also going back to that word of accountability, because one bad apple can spoil the whole bunch.

00:57 Let's just say that.

00:58 And that's what we don't want when we're talking about an inclusive environment, because people often label the whole organization, not necessarily just the departments that may not be doing what we expect them to do.

01:10 We want to give regular feedback on meeting practices, and also offer space for people to offer ideas on improvement.

01:19 And again, being creative. So no, one way.

01:22 There is that, oftentimes, an inherent perceived power differential for leaders and everybody else in the organization in the organization rather.

01:32 So sometimes people are more reluctant to speak up.

01:35 Well, maybe you want to offer a space where they can have those note cards in boxes, because some people do still like the old school way of putting it on a piece of paper.

01:44 Just different avenues and venues for people to be able to provide feedback, because we can't control that some people will always not feel comfortable with saying something directly, especially to a leader.

01:56 There's their perceived power differential, and fear of some type of retaliation.

02:01 We always want to celebrate successes.

02:04 We want to acknowledge effort, and we want to acknowledge that we win as a team, always.

02:09 Sometimes as leaders, I know for me, personally, I like to take the brunt of it, when something doesn't go well, then I will take the fault for that.

02:20 Because as the leader, I should be paying attention to a lot of things.

02:25 But as a team, we want to celebrate the successes.

02:28 And we don't celebrate, "Well, this person did 10 things.

02:30 And this one only did one." Well, that one thing that person did might be great.

02:35 Might have been a heavier lift than the 10 things the other person did, or this person may have done a whole lot by themselves, whereas, five people did this part.

02:44 The whole point is there's a collective effort to meet the goals of the organization.

02:49 And just reiterating that accountability should be equal among all but you don't want to go throwing people under the bus as a leader.

02:58 Either you want to say we're going to do better as a team.

03:00 You know, we are going to evaluate, and we're just going to do better the next time.

03:05 So that also supports people feeling like they're not going to get blamed when something doesn't go right.

03:10 So just to bring it all home and summarize it.

03:14 We want to recognize and accommodate individual differences, so we can promote equal participation and increase productivity in team projects and embracing differences.

03:25 It's okay, it's okay to be different.

03:27 It's okay that something doesn't fit with individual norms and preferences as leaders or as team members.

03:34 So that would be a good place where we want to consistently emphasize the value of diversity.

03:41 Not just the presence. We don't want to just acknowledge that.

03:44 We have people here who come from different backgrounds and look differently.

03:48 How are we valuing what people are bringing to the table and contributes into the team.

03:54 Remembering that diverse teams boost creativity and also support innovation.

03:59 So, one example of that is, you know, we all think we come up with these great ideas, and they often are good ideas.

04:06 They're brilliant ideas in isolation.

04:08 But when we think about bringing them to a team, and someone adds to that based on their experience, and their background, and I don't just mean professional experience, I mean, as a human.

04:18 So good ideas go from good to great to exceptional and when we include everybody, they become extraordinary ideas.

04:26 Because it's just something that's innovative that oftentimes we can't think of by ourselves.

04:32 So most people who are the most successful and organizations who are the most successful that way because they value diversity of thought, diversity of experience, diversity of humanity.