What kind of culture and atmosphere does your organization have?  Is it a culture and  atmosphere in which people work hard, are rewarded for their hard work and have fun, or is it one in which people hate to go to go to work and tend to avoid it at all costs?

Fun organizations, as described by their employees, have some or all of the following characteristics:

·        There is a true feeling of “team” within the organization.

·        Individuals are given responsibility and the corresponding authority to exercise that responsibility.

·        Accountability is high at all levels within the organization.

·        People are rewarded for the right reasons.

·        Communication is prevalent and regular within the organization.

·        People have trust and confidence in their leadership.

Lets look at each of these in more detail.

There is a true feeling of “team” within the organization – This specifically gets at the issue of inclusion of individuals within the organization.  True “team” environments are ones in which individuals feel involved and know that their input will be welcomed, valued and considered.  

Individuals are given responsibility and the corresponding authority to exercise that responsibility - We often see individuals who are given extensive responsibility with little or no authority.  This is most telling when it comes to making financial decisions for the organization.  Individuals who have P&L responsibility for millions of dollars often have their hands tied in making decisions for amounts as little as $500.  These individual must receive multiple levels of approval, which slows the process and demeans the individual’s authority.  Organizations have implemented these processes many times because someone at sometime made a bad decision which cost the company money.  Unfortunately, the entire organization pays the price for this one individual when the individual should have been dealt with one-on-one rather than negatively impacting everyone.

Accountability is high at all levels within the organization - Organizations must have high accountability if they are to thrive in today’s marketplace.  An organization’s procedures and practices must match if the organization is to be credible.  There can never be two sets of rules within the organization, in other words, this is what the policy says, but this is how we do things here.  This sort of activity will only result in mistrust within the organization and a loss of respect for authority.

People are rewarded for the right reasons - Along with accountability, there must a reward system that provide incentives for doing things right.  Organizations need to step back and inquire as to what they are rewarding their people for and if those rewards are eliciting the types of actions, behaviors and performance that are positively impacting the organization.  If we are rewarding people for actions or activities that are having a negative impact on the organization, this type of reward must cease.  An example would  be rewarding a buyer to buy goods at a reduced price, saving the company in the cost of goods, only to have that particular item sit in the warehouse because the item was not a hot seller, thus resulting in increased warehouse costs and having to ultimately sell the item at a loss to move the inventory.

Communication is prevalent and regular within the organization – Communication of both successes and failures must take place within the organization at all levels.  Companies that fail to communicate when things are good as well when things are bad do themselves and their employees a disservice.  Allowing the street to dictate the message can have extremely negative consequences, because the organization losses faith in its leadership and leadership losses control of what is being said and how it is being interpreted.  Communication verbally and in writing is extremely important and must take place on a regular basis.

People have trust and confidence in their leadership – One of the keys to good leadership is building trust and confidence by modeling the types of behaviors that organizations require of its employees.  With the recent scandals that have swept American business, it is critical that leaders realize the important of being forthright and honest with their workers and not engaging in any activities that could be perceived to be questionable.