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Meaningful Workplace

Meaningful Workplace: Master Plans Create Employee Alliance

March 2, 2016 —

Meaningful Workplace: Master Plans Create Employee Alliance

Creating employee alliance Seventh in a series. A Meaningful Workplace is built from the company’s master plan – a strategic platform used exclusively by senior management – that defines the three core elements of ambition (purpose), feelings (values), and behavior (building a culture). This master plan drives all subsequent activities, which include: Macro Plans – how the business itself will be evolved; Group Plans – how groups of employees will be engaged; Solo Plans – how individual employees will be personally engaged. Building something great and enduring Macro Planning puts the...
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Building a Meaningful Workplace Culture

February 25, 2016 —

Building a Meaningful Workplace Culture

Sixth in a series on workplace culture “If people are good only because they fear punishment, and hope for reward, then we are a sorry lot indeed.” – Albert Einstein A business’ fate is determined in large part by its culture. A business culture is the reality created by how people act, react, and interact with each other based on their attitudes, beliefs, and ambitions. The most damaging business cultures are those in which aggression, neglect, and punishment leave employees feeling they have no reason to commit their energies and skills, share their ideas, or help the company advance....
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Using Values to Build Engagement and a Meaningful Workplace

February 17, 2016 —

Using Values to Build Engagement and a Meaningful Workplace

Fifth in a series. “People may not remember exactly what you did, or what you said, but they will always remember how you made them feel.” – Maya Angelou The goal of employee engagement is to drive employee attitudes, behavior, morality, and ethics in such a way as to improve their productivity, morale, satisfaction, and usefulness within the organization. However, many companies have struggled with converting their proclaimed values into compelling, work-changing experiences for their employees. Often, the problems have been that the values are typically expressed with meaning-neutral (if...
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The Meaningful Workplace: It Takes New Ways of Thinking, and Acting

February 12, 2016 —

The Meaningful Workplace: It Takes New Ways of Thinking, and Acting

The Meaningful Workplace is the fourth in a series.  How do you build an workplace where people are willing to bring their gifts of initiative, creativity, and passion?” – Gary Hamel You can’t build a workplace that is meaningful to people using the old mentality and outdated tools. Old techniques are no good if they have rendered your current workplace meaning-neutral or, at worst, meaningless. To forge meaningful alliances with meaning-seeking employees requires new ways of thinking and acting. Familiar business constructs that have formed the foundation of employer/employee relations are...
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Meaningful Millennials: In the Workplace

February 11, 2016 —

Meaningful Millennials: In the Workplace

This is the second installment in our weekly series entitled “Meaningful Millennials”, where we interview millennials on a variety of different subjects that are top of mind for us in the studio. As a brand strategy firm, we work with our clients to help develop strategies that enable their brand, their business, and their workplaces to be more meaningful. This year, there has been a lot of work in the studio around employer branding, improving employee engagement, shifting culture, recruiting top talent internationally, and understanding how to create a meaningful workplace for millennials....
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Why Workplaces Aren’t Meaningful Now

January 27, 2016 —

Why Workplaces Aren’t Meaningful Now

Third in our Meaningful Workplace series. Disillusioned by the age of conspicuous consumption, worried by the state of the planet and its people, rocked by war, corruption, and financial crises, and immersed in a swirl of information, news, opinion, and gossip, people are searching for meaning in their lives. Today they feel a need to align with people, ideas, and companies that make them feel they’re part of something bigger than themselves. People are seeking a sense of purpose, a reason for being, and the answer to the question, “Why is this good?” Today their idea of good is shaped by an...
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Getting Employees to Respond Positively

January 20, 2016 —

Getting Employees to Respond Positively

Getting Employees to Respond Positively is the second in a series on Meaningful Workplaces. Meaningful Workplaces are built by companies that aim to produce a more meaningful outcome from, and for, their people. To become meaningful, these companies adopt a new stance vis-à-vis their relationship with their employees. They strive to reduce the distance that’s been imposed through organization structures and prevailing attitudes. They seek stronger emotional connections up, down, and across their enterprise. They see their task as making their company fit for the future by making it fit for...
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The Key To Better Engaging Your Employees

January 13, 2016 —

The Key To Better Engaging Your Employees

The workplace is in crisis. And engaging your employees is not easy. Workers are not engaged. Productivity is down. Morale is low. Many employees obviously don’t see the point of what they, or their employer, are doing. How can a business turn the tide of employee dissonance? How can it become fit for a future that’s bound to be more competitive, complex, and commoditized? How can it connect with people who are no longer blindly accepting corporate propaganda — people who are more “we” than “me” focused? People who are more discerning about the ideas, products, and brands they buy into, the...
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How I See Our Culture – David Ogilvy

October 27, 2015 —

How I See Our Culture – David Ogilvy

I worked for Ogilvy and Mather for nine years. At the beginning of my time there, it was still a privately-held company – though within a few years of my tenure, it was absorbed (and changed forever) by WPP. I came across this piece written by David Ogilvy (whom I had the pleasure of meeting once), about the culture of Ogilvy back in the day. I think all leaders should use it as a culture check-list for their companies. From The Unpublished David Ogilvy. Here is how I see our culture. A NICE PLACE TO WORK Some of our people spend their entire working lives in our agency. We do our damnedest...
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Employer Brand: It Doesn’t Happen by Messaging Alone

October 22, 2015 —

Employer Brand: It Doesn’t Happen by Messaging Alone

“The words printed here are concepts. You must go through the experiences.” – Saint Augustine People today, including employees and prospective recruits, are looking for more meaning in their lives and in their work. This is why there has been a rise in budgets directed to more meaningfully connect with employers and an increase in budgets to develop a company’s Employer Brand. Messaging alone won’t pull employees in This is especially true when investing in your Employer Brand, and trying to build a Meaningful Workplace. It becomes far more involved than simply sending a PDF of the...
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