Literature of Leadership - July Book Review
THE CULTURE QUESTION: HOW TO CREATE A WORKPLACE WHERE PEOPLE LIKE TO WORK. Randy Grieser, Eric Stutzman, Wendy Loewen, and Michael Labun. (2019, Kindle Edition)
The evidence is clear! When people enjoy where they work, they become more engaged and productive—which in turn improves organizational performance. Yet, many leaders do not take workplace culture into account until a crisis occurs. How does your organization’s culture impact how much people like where they work? What cultural elements are healthy, and which ones are not? What can you do to improve workplace culture? If you seek a useful guide for improving employee engagement and workplace conditions, this book is for you.
The Culture Question is organized into eight chapters. Chapter 1 makes the case for why culture is important. Chapters 2 through 7 each address a core element underlying a healthy workplace culture which include: Communicate Your Purpose and Values, Provide Meaningful Work, Focus Your Leadership Team on People, Build Meaningful Relationships, Create Peak Performing Teams, and Practice Constructive Conflict Management. Each chapter connects the defined core element with a “healthy” organizational culture, and then presents tips, tools and effective strategies for improvement. The final chapter (8) addresses the broader aspects of organizational culture change. A process, framework, and guidelines for implementation are provided for assessing the existing culture, envisioning the desired culture, influencing culture change, and assessing progress.
Of particular note is that this book is authored by four experienced consultants with the ACHIEVE Centre for Leadership & Workplace Performance. In the resource section, the authors provide numerous tools for advancing culture change to add to your leadership toolkit (e.g., Cultural Health Assessment, Purpose and Values Questionnaire, Sample Interview Questions, A Guide for Building Consensus, Conflict Transformation Guide, Conflict Management and Respectful Workplace Guidelines, and Culture Change Guide).
Image source: Amazon
