The type of culture your company has defines and shapes how your employees think about their work, and their place within their workplace. When you have a strong, thriving company culture, with a defined and lived out purpose and values, employees are happy and productive, and it makes attracting new talent all the easier.
A weak company culture, on the other hand, can do the opposite, and even turn potential applicants away from your company.
A strong organizational culture doesn’t just happen by chance. Especially as we stay with an organization for years, it can be hard to take a critical eye to practices and attitudes around our culture that have always been there. Outside perspectives can help us view our own company’s people practices with fresh eyes.
Check out these TED Talks that discuss different ways to make your employees and workplace, in general, a happier, more productive place:
1. Why work doesn’t happen at work
Jason Fried has a radical theory of working: that the office isn’t a good place to do it. Find out his three suggestions to make work work:
2. Igniting creativity to transform corporate culture
Design leader Catherine Courage challenges us to drive innovation in the workplace by igniting our innate creativity from childhood:
3. World’s greatest workplace
Vishen works with authors, thinkers, authors and leaders who have pioneered new ways of doing traditional things: parenting, entrepreneurship, spiritual growth, self-development and more.
4. What makes us feel good about our work?
What motivates us to work? Contrary to conventional wisdom, it isn’t just money. But it’s not exactly joy either. It seems that most of us thrive by making constant progress and feeling a sense of purpose. Behavioral economist Dan Ariely presents two eye-opening experiments that reveal our unexpected and nuanced attitudes toward meaning in our work.
5. Listen, learn…then lead
Four-star general Stanley McChrystal shares what he learned about leadership over his decades in the military. How can you build a sense of shared purpose among people of many ages and skill sets? By listening and learning — and addressing the possibility of failure.
6. Got a meeting? Take a walk
Nilofer Merchant suggests a small idea that just might have a big impact on your life and health: Next time you have a one-on-one meeting, make it into a “walking meeting” — and let ideas flow while you walk and talk.
7. The puzzle of motivation
Career analyst Dan Pink examines the puzzle of motivation, starting with a fact that social scientists know but most managers don’t: Traditional rewards aren’t always as effective as we think. Listen for illuminating stories — and maybe, a way forward.
8. Radical wisdom for a company, a school, a life
What if your job didn’t control your life? Brazilian CEO Ricardo Semler practices a radical form of corporate democracy, rethinking everything from board meetings to how workers report their vacation days (they don’t have to). It’s a vision that rewards the wisdom of workers, promotes work-life balance — and leads to some deep insight on what work, and life, is really all about. Bonus question: What if schools were like this too?