A HR win to share in cultural change

Good morning and happy Wednesday to everyone. Just felt like sharing a recent HR win at my workplace. The Climb isn’t over yet- but it is rewarding to get the feeling that things are starting to shift.

I’ve been working really hard on culture here, and by that I mean how we do things. I could use a number of HR buzz words, but really when it comes down to it- that’s what it is all about. There was room for improvement in the way we did things here so I started with the leader’s onsite.

I started out with an awesome presentation on leadership and management (or so I thought). We had a brief discussion (or ranting session of 1.5 hours) and then I asked them all to volunteer to do an LSI assessment.

Yeah it got shot down and they left frustrated that I didn’t understand what they were experiencing. I did acknowledge the hardships and frustration, but perhaps this didn’t come across very well. Additionally, I was pretty firm on the fact that it didn’t matter what was happening- nothing excuses poor behaviour towards others in the workplace. Many argued that their behaviour was out of their control- personality is all down to brain chemistry and that this was a form of brain washing. Surprisingly, they agreed to do the LSI and I booked in the debriefings.

The debriefings were held in two sessions and again it brought another barrage of complaints. The passive-aggressive were convinced that the culture was fine the way it was and the passive-defensives argued that their angry/hostile behaviour was a product of the environment and conditions they were placed in. I kept on with my stance that they had to work with things that they could control, and find ways to cope with those that they couldn’t.

I really like this point, and try to remember it when I get stressed:

God grant me the serenity
To accept the things I cannot change;
Courage to change the things I can;
And wisdom to know the difference.

However, I did wonder if I was wasting my time at this point.

They did raise an interesting point though in their debriefings. “Why should we demonstrate this behaviour when we aren’t seeing it from the leaders above?”

I responded saying that I agreed it would be good to see it from the top. In absence of that (from their own perceptions) I argued that it would be great to lead as the example here and push this positivity upwards. They left grumpy and I thought about what I could do.

Next steps: I got the very Senior Leaders to complete the LSI and they have agreed to share their results with the others. They will explain what they need to work on, and encourage others to create a development plan based on the findings from the LSI.

Then an executive was going to be onsite for a few days so I asked him to speak to the leaders here. It was amazing. He spoke about all the changes that had been happening and plans for the future. He apologised for the lack of communication and explained how he intended on communicating in the future. He acknowledge things were tough but reemphasized the need to act as role models at all times. Great conversation and the leaders walked away (my own perception) feeling listened to.

Finally, with Bully and Harassment training refresher training due I thought let’s roll with this top down thing I am trying to get happening here. I put together the presentation but didn’t want it to be a HR tick-in-the-box kinda compliance thing. I wanted it to be thought-provoking, sink in and tie into all the stuff we’d been talking about behaviour.

So I asked one of the leaders to present it to the rest of the group and it was a really positive experience. He put it into their language, they talked about their own experiences and then we talked through some cases studies.

At the end of it, I put it to the group on how we would communicate this to the other staff and they volunteered to present the message to their groups with my support.

Such a different attitude to the ones I started with. I’m very excited to see a shift happening and hopefully it’s the start of more changes to come.