Nurturing a Healthy Workplace Culture

Creating a healthy workplace culture is one of the greatest ways to have a positive impact in modern society. In previous generations, your workplace was often filled with your actual family because the norm was to have a family business. Whether your family’s contribution to society was farming and agriculture, manufacturing and textiles, or any variety of commodities and services, it was often known that there’s a leader that sets the precedent on “the way we do business” and the workers fall in line. By the time someone turns 15 they have 15 years of experience and on the job training with the family business is and is able to trusted with many responsibilities and eventually the leadership roles fall to the younger generations as they age and mature. Personalities, skill levels, and habits were known within the family so even when there was conflict, they also knew how to resolve it or just move on so they could get back to business and profit!

In modern society we have embraced individuality and discovering our own path which tends to have many of us gaining expertise and training in things we are really interested in but, we also find ourselves working with complete strangers. We know what we bring to the table but we may not know what talents and skills the next person possesses. I have worked in many environments that varied from feeling like that second family, insert warm embrace, to environments that felt like that first divorce. Ouch!

 So how do we create and/or nurture a healthy workplace environment? This may sound very familiar if you know anything about Internal Family Systems developed by Dr. Richard Schwartz.

1. Start with calmness and confidence. You got the job! You were hired! Someone saw your talent and decided that you had what was necessary or maybe more than what was necessary to meet the needs of the company. Allow that to be the evidence you need that you belong within the workplace. It’s hard to not feel anxiety when the new hire or the tenured employee uses a mixture of bravado and abrasiveness to prove their worth. No proof is necessary. You were hired. You belong. Now lets focus on step 2.
2. Next you want to work on connectedness and curiosity. Who hasn’t heard the saying that “no man is an island?” From scriptures to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, our need to belong and have companionship are well documented. Who can forget Tom Hanks character forming a relationship with this dear friend Wilson the volleyball after he was stranded on that deserted island? We need people to talk to, laugh with, vent frustrations and more. Isolation is miserable as so many of us learned as Covid 19 quarantines dragged on. Though it may have started out as a reprieve from daily stressors like traffic and crowds, eventually that reprieve became a source of stress for so many that just wanted life to go back to the way it was. What it is that will draw us to each other is curiosity. Who are the people that I’m working with? What are they like? Do they have something to offer that could be beneficial to me? Do I have something to offer that will be beneficial to them? Curiosity opens the door to wonder. We can wonder about how things are currently. We can wonder about the possibilities that can exist in the future if we learn who our coworkers and co-laborers are and the talents, they possess which leads us to step 3.
3. Step 3 is all about compassion and clarity. According to Merriam Webster, compassion is sympathetic consciousness of others’ distress together with a desire to alleviate it. Compassion is described as turning towards someone’s pain. You’re only reading this article because you are human and privy to the knowledge that the human experience isn’t simply sunshine and rainbows. As we have gone through tragedies, losses, and disappointments, so have our coworkers. We have full knowledge of what we’ve experienced and where we are on our journey towards wholeness but we can’t know where our coworkers are on their journey towards wholeness. So sometimes we see behaviors in our coworkers that we don’t quite understand and it triggers a fight or flight response where self-preservation may tell us to dismiss and disconnect from that person. But I would challenge you to do the compassionate thing and turn towards that person and seek clarity. We all have been shaped by the sum of our life experiences which are unique to every individual. People can be raised in the same family and have different perspectives on the same event. A perspective is valid but that’s just what an individual believes. An intention can be valid but that’s just what an individual meant. Clarity is how we either get on the same page or at least we get to see the page the other individual is on. If the buck stops on perception or intention then it’s a one-sided view that wouldn’t create harmony because harmony requires working together as one though you are different. This will bring us to our final step, step 4.
4. Lastly, to create or nurture a healthy workplace you want to bring on the courage and creativity. At this point in your journey, you will have created a sense of community within your workplace. Now that you have built that level of trust that you’re not just in this for the money but you care about the work and the people you work with, let’s not forget you came into this workplace with a unique set of talents and skills. You understand the direction of the company and you understand the direction of your coworkers. So what can you do to level it up? Do you see some holes in the growth plan? Have you noticed some processes that can be improved upon? Are you aware of a marketplace your company could capitalize on? Do you have a talent that you were refining and now you’re ready to diversify your portfolio and do something that has yet to be done? Now is the time to use courage and throw out those great ideas you’ve been thinking can help increase revenue, visibility, and marketing. By now you’ve demonstrated your talents and dedication. Now is the time to really come into your own with the support of the people you have supported, with your compassion, connection, and confidence.

Work is often the place we spend the most time outside of home and some of us spend more time at work than home due to other roles and responsibilities like showing up for our kids at school, our social endeavors and lets not forget those with long commutes that spend a lot of time traveling between events. Having a great place to work at is a gift that we can give to ourselves by showing up for our coworkers and having them show up for us. What you do at work makes a difference so lets be the change we want to see.