Unraveling the misconceptions that often shackle culture leaders, we delve into five pervasive myths. By debunking these, we pave the way for progress, enabling leaders to foster a more dynamic, inclusive, and forward-thinking organizational culture.

Work hybrid or in the office

This oversimplification misses the opportunity to evolve company culture

  • Companies assume employees are the same shape they were in February 2020, not recognizing the changes of the past 16 months
  • There are two options
  • Try to grab the second trapeze and evolve approaches to work
  • Experiment with different options, and trust the safety net

Myth 1: We can ‘fix’ culture

Culture continually shifts and is reinforced or discouraged through the actions of each employee.

  • You are never done shaping culture. Healthy cultures are agile enough to make real-time adjustments to support the employee and business outcomes.

Myth 5: If we send out a culture survey now it will be negative

Culture surveys shouldn’t be sent to only provide positive responses

Myth 2: Virtual or hybrid work erodes culture or causes the loss of culture

If your culture isn’t working, it is a symptom of larger issues

  • You just either didn’t notice or didn’t experience enough discomfort to make changes
  • Things not working in your culture will surface again until you address them

What leaders can do now

Don’t solve complex problems with binary options

  • Embrace experimentation
  • Test different configurations of work location at the team level
  • Reframe problems into “How might we…”
  • Take a hard look at your meetings
  • Teams should protect meetings for discussions and decision-making, not updates
  • There is no perfect design or location for work

Myth 3: There is a perfect organizational design

Focus less on the design and more on equipping leaders and teams to be agile across a variety of circumstances

Myth 4: Leaders have to see their employees to control their work

If leaders have to physically see employees, their company hasn’t equipped them with expectations or skills to be effective

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