As a result of our team’s slight growth in number during the past six months, the following question gained more and more emphasis: How to grow and develop as a successful company along humanistic values? My conviction is that it should be the leader’s conscious decision whether they create an authoritarian or a self-organising working environment. When the mere existence and survival of the company is at stake, even the loftiest principles can degrade into anxious trepidation in lack of a conscious, iterative construction along the designated values.

Below, I will elaborate on the six core values of organisational development in accordance with the article on . I believe that these six points define clearly what principles to focus on, when our aim is to create a humanistic workplace.

1. Make it possible for your co-workers to function as human beings instead of human resources.

The way managers refer to their colleagues tells much about a firm. The term ‘my man’ is often used, especially when expressing proud appreciation. Nevertheless, this wording refers to the manager’s opinion that the ‘man’ was acting on his behalf, thus entitling him to reap the reward.

During regular performance reviews it is important that the (team)leader praise each and every co-worker’s labour. It is practical to highlight the achievements in front of the group, whereas criticism is better to be given in private, thus providing collective positive feedback while preventing individual humiliation.

2. Make it possible for your co-workers to develop to their full potential.

Although job descriptions may define the operational framework quite well, they can often hinder unfolding and evolvement. Consequently, it is practical also to set individual development goals for everyone. The management can facilitate the realisation of these goals in harmony with daily labour and the training plan. In knowledge-based companies this can be a crucial factor of sustaining motivation. For such enterprises, individual competence and personal development goals provide the thrust; therefore these must have an influence on the formulation of their business strategy.

3. Increase the organisation’s efficiency via adherence to clearly formulated goals.

It is worthwhile to retire every year for a couple of days to discuss strategy with co-workers. Making them feel their involvement in corporate strategy is an important element in commitment induction. Building the company on a clear-cut system of values attracts people of similar persuasion. During recruitment, candidates’ world-view should be examined to find out how important they find the principles the organisation is built around.

One of my favourite quotes of relevance remains the following from the book The E-Myth Revisited by Michael E. Gerber:

“IBM is what it is today for three special reasons.  The first reason is that, at the very beginning, I had a very clear picture of what the company would look like when it was finally done.  You might say I had a model in my mind of what it would look like when the dream — my vision — was in place.

The second reason was that once I had that picture, I then asked myself how a company which looked like that would have to act. I then created a picture of how IBM would act when it was finally done.

The third reason IBM has been so successful was that once I had a picture of how IBM would look when the dream was in place and how such a company would have to act, I then realized that, unless we began to act that way from the very beginning, we would never get there.

In other words, I realized that for IBM to become a great company it would have to act like a great company long before it ever became one.

From the very outset, IBM was fashioned after the template of my vision.  And each and every day we attempted to model the company after that template.  At the end of each day, we asked ourselves how well we did, discovered the disparity between where we were and where we had committed ourselves to be, and, at the start of the following day, set out to make up for the difference. (Thomas J Watson)” (Gerber, 1995)

4. Create an environment enabling your people to experience their work as exciting and challenging.

The emphasis is on positive feedback: in the long run, no-one will be satisfied without it. I used to work for a company where the appraisal of developers’ achievements had no regularity or consistency. Without regard to the actual development phase, having the deadlines kept was the greatest and only concern of the project manager. No matter how well or poorly the team performed, the developers had to take the stress stemming from customer communication. In the constant anxiety people tried to defend themselves by working spectacularly. Overtime became the norm, with a shadow of suspicion over those not playing along. Pizza and Pepsi was consumed at large, but so was good humour.

In a sizeable organisation, it is highly recommended to have motivating key persons (scrum masters, product owners, project managers, lead developers) who also pay attention to provide positive feedback to team members in public after delivery.

5. Make it possible for your co-workers to influence the development, operation and environment of the organisation. Make them feel that the success of the company and the quality of the work experience depends on them.

It is worthwhile to read The Speed of Trust by Stephen M. R. Covey on how the manifestation of trust can be increased at individual, group, organisation, market and society level. Formulating this trust must indeed be the first step in order to establish empowerment culture. In absence of confidence no corporate strategy can lead to success. Without it, there is no positive work atmosphere and no prosperity.

Before you make a decision that has a fundamental influence on the further operation of your company, make sure you inquire into your co-workers’ opinion. Listening to them is not only important to endow you with their pertinent judgement, but also to ensure their involvement.

In enterprises with a couple of colleagues it may work easily, but at large companies, where people are grouped into business units, divisions and workgroups, there is no opportunity for the CEO to converse with each employee. Still, I believe that a forum must be provided, allowing employees to express their opinion, regardless their position in the hierarchy. Personally or anonymously, if need be.

6. Keep in mind that each human being has their unique set of needs, thus personalization is always a more important factor of job satisfaction than setting and following standards.

The bigger the firm, the more difficult it is to practice individualisation. What should you standardise at corporate level? Too many regulations act as paralysing, whereas too few create insecurity.  Are you standardising infrastructure? Make sure you consider how much space you leave to individual preferences when you build configurations, as the quality of the hardware is often on par with the remuneration system when it comes to motivation. In the long run it costs the company less while being a similar satisfaction generator.

But do you have a real overview of your co-workers’ individual preferences and ideas? What are your tools to extract them?

You realise that your colleague is unsatisfied with the company phone, but that is the one included in the perquisite package. What will you do? Will you explain that it is the regulation, full stop, or will you rather find out where you can cut on the package and reallocate the savings to acquire the gadget of desire?

Summary

In order to create humanistic working conditions, it is expedient to dig into the special literature dealing with empowerment, organisational development and humanistic psychology. The framework here, which I have drawn up around six principles, may act as a guideline on what topics to consider regularly in order to create empowerment culture. Naturally, the list is infinite and if you have an idea not mentioned here, please share it in a comment.

Works consulted:

1. Organizational development – Wikipedia article
   The principles quoted there from Marguiles and Raia (1972) served as my inspiration. As it is a very thorough summary on what one needs to know about organisational development, I highly recommend reading it completely.
2. Empowerment – Wikipedia article.
   Thematic connections to sections ‘Process’ and ‘Workplace’.
3. Blanchard, Kenneth H., John P. Carlos, and Alan Randolph. . San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler, 1996.
   The authors highlight three factors worthy for attention when aiming at empowerment formulation: sharing knowledge in the organisation, creating autonomy in a given framework and replacing hierarchical structure with self-organising teams.
4. Covey, Stephen M. R. . New York: Free Press, 2008.
   Practical guide on how to increase trust in business and workplace environment (too).