Karl Edwards presents Working Matters

Tag: culture

  • Listen In -> Playing Favorites #5: Favoring Certain Workplace Cultures

    Many leaders have good reason to be proud of the workplace cultures they have built in their companies.

    But times change, people change, teams turn over, and new generations bring new values and aspirations to their jobs.

    In this week’s show, Claudia and I look at the workplace culture itself.

    Yes, most of the time we are talking up the importance of having an a workplace culture period. We preach the value of having an intentionally designed workplace culture instead of simply slipping into one without thinking about it.

    When it comes to playing favorites, though, we want to look at the issue from the other end of the spectrum.

    Are you aware of how and where your workplace culture is serving you well and where it is not?

     Are you holding onto a culture whose effectiveness in the past is dissuading you from reevaluating it in the present?

    Do you have so much at stake personally that you’re having a difficult time thinking critically about what’s best for the future?

    Workplace cultures change slowly. Could playing favorites here be sowing the seeds of future problems?

    Listen in.

    Just now joining the conversation? Catch up on the entire series here.

  • Loving Monday: From Occasional to Ordinary

    loving_mondayGet up right now and walk over to a co-worker and thank them for being a part of the team.

    Don’t pause. Don’t hesitate. Don’t over-think this one. Simply go let someone know that you appreciate them and then come back and finish reading this post.

    How was it? Did they look at you with bewildered astonishment? Did they smile and return an awkward thank-you?

    I‘d love to see a movement where expressions of appreciation at work went from being occasional to being ordinary.

    There doesn’t need to be a reason to express appreciation. In fact, the element of surprise is one of the best parts.

    What if work became the sort of place where one could expect to be appreciated and valued? Hearing things like, “Thank you” and “I’m glad you’re here” would be ordinary experiences instead of isolated rarities.

    What would it be like?

    Would would it be like to know that whatever your mood, whatever your mistake, whatever the complications of the day, there would be an atmosphere (more…)

  • Karl Shares Six Words… #17


    March Madness: productivity plummets, morale soars.


    Karl Edwards

  • The Gift of Work -> Chapter 5: Not a Trivial Pursuit

    thought-leadersWe have become a culture of “preventative ethics.”

    That’s my term for what Bill Heatley identifies as ethics that confines itself to avoiding either litigation or offending people. There’s a problem with defining or limiting anything to what it is not.

    gift-of-work1I hear the grieving of what has been lost in terms of moral vocabulary, social mores, and behavioral standards. Being the veritable pragmatist that I am, though, I want to move immediately to thinking through creative options for facing this current reality, however tragic, and creating, developing and experimenting with alternatives for maturing into a working community that is, in fact, characterized by love, goodness and justice.

    It might be more effective to have our working communities back into their ethics. If it’s not going to work to begin with the concept and move to the practice, then let’s talk together about our practices. Teams would discuss and agree upon what behaviors they would like their working relationships (more…)