-
What does a Healthy Work Environment look like?
Have you ever walked into an organisation and instantly felt good? There’s an energy about that you can’t quite put your finger on. People are smiling, making eye contact and generally just seem happy. They even acknowledge you, just by you standing there. That feels good. Yeah these offices are cool, you think, and you start noticing the pictures and posters on the wall. The mission statement, you read it. What an awesome space, I could work here. There’s a buzz in the atmosphere, you can literally see the ideas flying about. There’s a pace, a movement. Hey it’s just a great vibe in here, you start to feel energized. Wow, and when you leave you tell 100 people about what you just experienced!
Wow! … yeah that hardly ever happens.
But that’s the point, its something you feel and experience and it’s almost instant. You connect with something that’s in the space, the people and the atmosphere. And it makes you feel great!
So even with the evidence that creating a Healthy Work Environment can make a huge difference to an organisation and that it makes good business sense in terms of productivity, engagement, innovation and collaboration, what’s stopping organisations from doing so???
Some reasons I tend to hear:
- It’s not reality
- Nothing gets done in that kind of environment
- Its not for my business
- My business is serious
- Its not profitable
- We’ve always worked like this
- We’re too big
- We don’t have time for that stuff
- We cant afford to change
What if you knew some simple yet effective ways of working that all organisations no matter their size or budget could implement. A good deal of what makes a healthy work environment is around the behaviours and habits in the organisation. When there is alignment between what can be seen in an organisation, the values that are being felt and experienced and the behaviours and habits then you get a strong culture. The saying goes “Culture eats strategy for lunch!” (- Peter Drucker), so if you aren’t thinking about how to create a healthy work environment you can pretty much forget your business growing and being profitable for any sustainable length of time.
- Vivien Hunt – LeadSource Coaching
