Time again for the latest on Human-Centric Performance

Welcome to this week´s news – what's the cost of disengaged employees is a question McKinsey & Company is concerned about, while HP publishes it Work Relationship Index Report across 12 countries and Gartner looks at Transformation Fatigue. Last but not least, LinkedIn looks at the early days efforts of leveraging #A.I. in the workplace with powerful examples. Enjoy the read.

„I Cannot Stand The Next Transformation Program“ – Gartner Analyze Data On Transformation Fatigue

We have all seen it – a new CEO comes along and the next change program is about to start. Often, companies move from one extreme to the other. Recently, I talked to a responsible director of culture change at a major company who said: “Well, one year we move to fully decentralized organization, the other year we have started to centralize everything again. What can you expect from employees in such a context?” Not much is what I responded. Because employees are getting tired of these programs that sometimes contradict themselves. No credibility, no trust. It´s as simple as that. Gartner have recently analyzed what it means and the results are mind-blowing.

In an analysis looking at companies during 2016 to 2022, they saw the willingness of employees to accept and embrace those programs went down significantly – and obviously the effort to get to where the program was headed in the first place increased. One could argue that this is just a what transformation managers have to accept, but the next set of data is even more alarming.

It´s not just that transformation programs are more difficult to implement, the “Change Fatigue” corrodes employee outcomes significantly. A 42% increase in “Less intent to stay” speaks volumes.

Hence Gartner updated their formula on successful organizational transformations by the factor “Fatigue Management”.

The Gartner numbers state that only half of organizational transformations are successful because leaders generally fail to update the organizational transformation formula by adding the change fatigue management. Change fatigue corrodes employee outcomes and unaddressed change fatigue harms employee well-being and can have devastating impacts on key organizational outcomes.

Just adding more training won’t help them to lead the organizational change. The majority of employees are not confident in their manager’s ability to lead their team to success in the next two years and managers are overwhelmed by the growth of their job responsibilities, according to Gartner´s research based on data from over 500 HR people (with 34% of them being chief human resources officers (CHROs) and HR leaders) across 40 countries and all major industries.

Gartner researchers recommend three actions for organizations to successfully drive transformational changes:

1. Organizations must plan ahead for change fatigue risks and build fatigue management into their plan to drive successful transformation.
2. Ensure change fatigue strategies become an inherent part of change plans
3. Improve job manageability of managers instead of focusing of must-have skills of managers.

There´s more data on this subject which can be found here.

How To Practise Integrity At The Workplace

Great article by Shirin Etessam (founder of OML TV) on a key aspect of organizations with soul: creating a culture of integrity inside the firm. As always, examples help to explain the issue. Here´s what she says: “Let’s say you’re very kind to your employees (what you do), but you’re often frustrated with them (what you feel) because they’re incompetent (what you think). Externally, you are kind and good to your employees. On the surface, anyone can say you’re a good boss. Internally, it’s a different story because you really don’t think they’re good enough. You find yourself frustrated with them and yet say or do nothing to change the circumstances. Sometimes, you may even find yourself venting about them to your family or friends just to blow off some steam or laugh it off. How you act with your employees is not in alignment with what you truly feel and think, so you’re actually at odds with them and with yourself.”

She recommends to take three steps (details that come with them can be found when clicking on this link):

1. Acknowledge how you think and feel.
2. Express and negotiate.
3. Make necessary adjustments.

As she puts it: “Now being kind to your employees (what you do) is aligned with appreciation (what you feel) because you know they are doing their very best (what you think). You have become the full definition of integrity.”

Six Key Drivers That Represent Key Imperatives To Business Leaders

HP has just published their Work Relationship Index Report – a study across 12 countries and 12,000 knowledge workers. Quite rich content. First of all, here are the six drivers:

1. Fulfillment
2. Leadership
3. People Centricity
4. Skills
5. Tools
6. Workspace

The analysis is very interesting, both on the global aggregate score shown in the spider chart below as well as in the country-by-country analysis shown separately.

The drivers that make up the world’s relationship with work score low on the Index (out of a top score of 100). The number in the center is the core Work Relationship Index score, capturing the percentage of people who have a healthy relationship with work today, out of 100. The highlighted scores outside the circle represent the current performance of each of the drivers, out of 100. Take a look at this spider chart:

They do not come as a surprise given the numerous studies, but they reinforce the importance of reflecting on what leadership actually do rather than what their powerpoint slides suggest is happening inside the firm.

HP’s research found that only about one-quarter (27%) of the world’s knowledge workers have a healthy relationship with work. Across the globe, however, workers’ relationships with work vary greatly, from a low of 5% who have a healthy relationship in Japan to a high of 50% in India. Overall, the relationship is healthier in emerging economies than in some of the more mature markets, all of which – except the US by one point – score at or below the global average of 27%

A few more findings:

Leadership: While 68% of business leaders agree that new ways of working demand new leadership styles, only 1 in 5 workers feel leaders have evolved their leadership styles accordingly. Many knowledge workers would take an 11% pay cut to work somewhere with empathetic and emotionally intelligent leadership.

Wellbeing: About half (48%) of knowledge workers are too emotionally and physically drained to complete personal tasks and responsibilities. This sentiment often hampers their ability to innovate.

Workspace: Knowledge workers want a seamless experience as they move between work locations – and a choice in where they work each day. The same group said they would give up 13% of their salary to work somewhere that lets them work where or when they want.

You can download the report from this link.

AI Is Shaking Up the Workplace

“In this room,” LinkedIn CEO Ryan Roslansky told global talent leaders at the Talent Connect Summit, “are the people who will shape — perhaps more than any other people anywhere else in the world — what the world of work is going to look like, not just in the coming years but over the coming decades.” He shared a number of successful early days examples of which I have picked the Siemens case as very good example of a large global enterprise.

Here´s what he said: “Siemens built a platform that makes personalized learning recommendations to employees based on identified skills gaps. When you’re as big (over 300,000 employees in more than 190 countries) and as old (the multinational technology giant celebrated its 176th birthday) as Siemens, it’s easy to get stagnant.

Not so at Siemens. Last year - to build more agility into their workforce - they started acting as a skills-first company, bringing skills to the center of their internal learning platform.

At Munich-based Siemens, they call the internal approach for individual learning and career journeys MyGrowth, which brings together all the tools, instruments, and experiences they make available in one place. The learning process starts with employees doing a self-assessment, alongside their manager, and then feeding those assessments into the company’s robust skills graph to receive personalized feedback about skills gaps and potential learning paths.

So far, more than 55,000 [Siemens] employees have done that analysis and are on the path to continuous learning that is tied not just to career development but to company growth.”

It´s obvious with all the changes at the workplace (the rise of the hybrid workplace and the challenges of a five-generation workforce), the opportunities are immense as are the challenges. The examples he shares are early days initiatives that already show the potential for companies big and small across all geographies and industries.

The four companies that he referenced are not done rewriting their playbook. In fact, they’re just getting started. But they have already seen impressive results and have become better positioned to keep moving forward successfully.

“I don’t think anyone can say they have it all figured out,” Ryan said. “But the companies and teams and leaders who will succeed most in the coming years are those that are starting to figure it out right now.” Read every detail plus more powerful examples here.

Some Employees Are Destroying Value. Others Are Building It.

“Do you know the difference?” is the question, McKinsey & Company asked recently. Based on their research, apparently “more than half of employees report being relatively unproductive at work. New research into six types of employees shows how companies can re-engage workers while amplifying the impact of star performers.”

According to new McKinsey research, employee disengagement and attrition could cost a median-size S&P 500 company between $228 million and $355 million a year in lost productivity.

Their latest research identifies six distinct employee groups, or archetypes, acrossa spectrum of satisfaction, engagement, performance, and well-being: “These workers range from the highly dissatisfied and actively disengaged—who comprise more than 10 percent of an average organization and who we believe are destroying value—to a group at the other end of the spectrum that we call ´thriving stars.´ At about 4 percent of an average organization, these super-engaged workers not only perform at high levels themselves but also appear to spread their positive engagement and commitment to others. In between these two poles is a vast middle of workers who experience varying levels of engagement and satisfaction that affect their performance and sense of well-being.”

1. The quitters: Headed for the door (or already gone)
2. The disruptors: Actively disengaged and likely to demoralize others
3. The mildly disengaged: Doing the bare minimum
4. The double-dippers: A growing phenomenon
5. The reliable and committed: Going above and beyond
6. The thriving stars: Creating value and elevating others

For each of these groups, McKinsey is offering a detailed description and – even more importantly – a set of actions that companies can take to address the situation with each of these six archetypes. Definitely worth a read - and worth taking action.

Do You Know What Psychological Safety Is Not?

Two weeks ago, I shared a short history which Timothy R. Clark had compiled about the theme of Psychological Safety. I suggested then that there was more to come from him about that subject which is critical to the performance of companies. Here´s what he says: “First, let's get on the same page about what it is. Psychological safety enables you to:

1. Feel included
2. Learn
3. Contribute
4. Challenge the status quo

As the central measure of cultural health, and the path to both inclusion and innovation, psychological safety is exploding as an organizational priority around the world. But there’s some confusion (and sometimes deliberate deception) about what it is and is not. People still misinterpret and misapply the concept. Let me share seven ways that leaders and organizations miss the mark.

1. A shield from accountability.

Non-performing employees will insist that psychological safety means working without worrying about outcomes. While people should always be inherently valued, there’s no diplomatic immunity from delivering results in the workplace.

1. Just niceness.

An overemphasis on being warm and hospitable can turn into a cheerful indifference to the tough decisions that need to be made. We may shy away from solving problems, making break throughs, stopping what isn’t working, and innovating.

1. Coddling.

Psychological safety means respecting your humanity, not increasing your fragility. Leaders can’t and shouldn’t wrap their teams in bubble wrap, but should instead work to build their self-efficacy.

1. Consensus decision-making.

Psychological safety should give you voice, but it does not change decision making authority. What should change is the level of engagement and collaboration that informs decisions. You should always be able to bring and discuss issues without fear.

1. Unearned autonomy.

Autonomy is earned, not owed. Psychological safety isn’t a shift to universal and self-directed empowerment. It does have the potential to redistribute influence and increase contribution, but guidance, supervision, and approval will still be part of the equation.

1. Political correctness.

Psychological safety does imply sensitivity for the views, feelings, and human attributes that define people. At its core, psychological safety is an apolitical, universal concept that unleashes the potential of people. No one should try to harness it for their political ends.

1. Rhetorical reassurance.

You can’t will psychological safety into existence with just words. Doing so will increase the levels of toxicity in your organization and you’ll appear to be culturally tone deaf or hypocritical.

As you make your own journey of cultural transformation, knowing what psychological safety is not will help you create and sustain what it truly is—a culture of rewarded vulnerability.”

Words of wisdom. Truly.

The next edition of the Building Corporate Soul newsletter will be in your mailbox on October 29. In the meantime let's make soulless companies a thing of the past...