We made the case in a previous blog post that organizations should resist the temptation to simply jump on the latest trends when designing their next workplace. While it’s easy to see why they would be tempted—after all, didn’t a given approach work for [impressive and admired corporation listed here]?, not to mention we could just get to it and not have to make any real investments of our time and energy on something we frankly know so little about—no other organization is exactly like them. And given the potential uptick in performance if we get it right, or the downside of attrition and disengagement if we get it very wrong (have you seen the negative headlines?), isn’t it worth investing time and energy to get it right?
How to get it right starts with ALIGNMENT. We use that word instead of promoting some definitive one-size-fits-everyone truth because each organization needs the workplace to reflect and enable their unique organization: their current realities, their brand and values, their business strategy for the coming year or two, their culture and its unwritten rules. Not anyone else’s. A robust workplace strategy tuned and tailored to their organization.
Of course there are best practices and applied science and all the other processes and tools a competent workplace strategist brings to the assignment, but what is even more important is that the strategy be compatible, consistent, congruent (see where we’re going here?) with that organization. That we understand the business, economic, cultural and social context in which it operates now, and what they expect in the near future. And that requires the organization to open itself to be known, and to participate in developing, testing and choosing the best ways forward.
Challenge: Defining Organizational Culture
After getting the organization to invest in letting themselves be known, the next toughest challenge is to pin down their culture. That’s because it is expressed with actions, with behaviors, with “how we do it here”—not with mission or vision statements. At Allsteel we believe that an organization’s culture is actually the sum of their unwritten rules: those unconscious, invisible ways we agree to behave when we’re in group settings (and even when no one’s looking).
That these unwritten rules are unconscious and invisible—especially to outsiders—makes it pretty hard to “see” them. And to determine which ones might be blocking the adoption of a new, helpful-to-the-organization’s-success behavior. We’re speaking and writing about unwritten rules: how to “see” them, how to import a new one that’s more aligned with the organization’s best intentions and business goals.
Calls to Action
Our call to action to organizations, then, is to take the time to let your consultant get to know you and your realities: your business goals and how you plan to achieve them, including work processes and activities, culture, and organizational structures that are needed to achieve those goals. Let your consultant explore the range or variety of work practices and behaviors they encounter, so those variations are all appropriately supported.
Our call to action for designers and workplace consultants is to advocate for the upfront work needed to develop a solid understanding of their client organization.
The return on this investment by both parties will be a workplace that well and truly ‘fits’ the organization, and with the best odds of effectively and efficiently enabling the organization now and into their future.
