Workplaces where people are engaged do significantly better in productivity & performance. If we want to build better staff engagement, we need more conversations, not "engagement campaigns". Too often, leaders who want to improve staff engagement build “campaign-style” interventions: analysing levels of engagement, having listening sessions, broadcasting messages & creating dashboards. Yet engagement isn’t a tool or a project - something you can "install" top down. It’s a daily, ongoing practice, rooted in the rhythms of conversation. The single force that shapes day-to-day engagement more than any other is line managers. (In the NHS, it is the frontline leaders, around band 7 level, who line manage >60% of the NHS workforce & who have an outsized influence on NHS productivity & performance). Consistent, authentic dialogue between managers & teams creates the psychological safety people need to speak up, take risks & challenge the status quo. If we want better engagement, we need to support front line leaders to develop skills for conversation-based leadership & build in routines that enable regular conversations to happen: medium.com/@kylejones_47003/…. By Kyle Jones on @Medium, via @LauraJYearsley.

What is the difference between cooperation, coordination & collaboration? 1) Cooperation - making sure our respective activities don't conflict; doesn't require high levels of trust, we just need to respect each other's space & activity. 2) Coordination - moving together towards a known shared outcome; requires greater trust as we rely on one another to do the work to achieve the common goal. 3) Collaboration - uniting people to create something new together that we couldn't accomplish alone; needs strong interpersonal trust. We need all three in different contexts. When it comes to leading across systems, we get the best outcomes when we invest in the strong trusting relationships that enable us to collaborate: linkedin.com/posts/efmorriso…. By Ed Morrison @Strategic_Doing. Deeper dive: doi.org/10.1177/014920632090…

We want to build a strong, positive organisational culture, based on values. Leaders often set out abstract absolute positives as organisational values (integrity, respect, trust etc) but these don't drive the day-to-day decision-making (& therefore the behaviour) of the people at work. Therefore, they have no impact on the actual culture. @ErinMeyerINSEAD has undertaken research on organisational culture for two decades & suggests six actions for making values-based culture come alive: 1) Build your culture based on real-world dilemmas: identify the tough dilemmas that people routinely face and clearly state how they should be resolved, in line with the stated values. 2) Move your culture from abstraction to action: “dilemma-test” your values to determine if they are actionable enough to be useful in real decision-making situations. 3) Paint your culture in full colour: articulate your desired culture using concrete, colourful images to get the values to stick. 4) Recruit people whose values fit: “bad” behaviour is contagious. 5) Let culture drive strategy: identify your strategic objective & use dilemmas so people understand what decisions they should be making to move the organisation in the right direction. 6) Don’t be a “values” purist: Identify dilemmas in which your stated values do not apply. hbr.org/2024/07/build-a-corp… Graphic by @julianstodd

Over the years, I've learnt that the best, highest performing teams are those where everyone feels a sense of belonging & appreciation for the unique & different things they bring to the team. So I'm happy to post this blog & sketchnote on "things boldly inclusive leaders do". They build an inclusive culture through foundations of continuous learning, active listening, authentic communication & creating a psychologically safe environment for people to thrive: qaspire.com/what-boldly-incl…. Thank you @minettenorman for the principles & @tnvora for your powerful interpretation.

I have been asked for advice about improving organisational culture. My view? DON'T start by setting up a "culture change" programme or a direct "culture" intervention. Culture gets changed when people start doing real work differently. Culture change is a byproduct of wider improvements. See for instance: hbswk.hbs.edu/item/to-change…. Via @HBSWK