Whether you are your own boss, manage a small team or StartUp or are part of a large organization or company, you should know that more nurturing and positive work cultures are more productive than high stress, competitive and less supportive ones.
That was the result of recent Harvard Business School research.
The new survey, which was orchestrated with guidance by Gapingvoid Culture Design Group which designs culture-centered organizations, found that workforce management systems that focus on productivity alone have an unseen cost.
These costs are manifested in 50% more healthcare spending, 40% more absenteeism and 70% more accidents, in manufacture and production workplaces. Also, employees are also far less likely to recommend the workplace to others, lessening the chances of recruiting top talent.
Even more noteworthy among the findings is that low stress, high productivity cultures are found to have four times more productivity with less “hand holding” from management and two times the revenues of their competitors.
When employees are aligned and engaged to a bright future, on a mission that they want to be a part of, performance improves with far greater innovative outcomes and less friction, the researchers found.
In an environment of low complexity (for example, manufacturing workers on basic machines), mindfulness at work is shown to have an incremental gain. In a medium complexity organizations, the productivity gains from mindfulness becomes exponential. In high-complexity organizations, the productivity gains become what Harvard Researchers call a “Breakthrough Organization”.
Achieving breakthrough organizations are what the few culture-centric businesses have done that have achieved name brand recognition for culture: Zappos, Four Seasons, Nordstrom, Quicken Loans, Southwest Airlines. A Breakthrough Organization is one that provides extraordinary value to both customers and to employees, not necessarily at low cost, but with extraordinary returns to shareholders.
Achieving a breakthrough organization is achievable for any leadership team willing to invest in designing for the future of work. Creating work that is both customer-centric and that is employee-centric. Designing for the future of organizational culture with new mindsets and innovative systems is how great organizations achieve long-term returns that cannot be replicated by their competitor.
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Jay Jay Ghatt is also editor at Techyaya.com, founder of the JayJayGhatt.com and JayJayGhatt.com where she teaches online creators how to navigate digital entrepreneurship and offers Do-It-For-You Blogging Service. She manages her lifestyle sites BellyitchBlog, Jenebaspeaks and JJBraids.com and is the founder of BlackWomenTech.com 200 Black Women in Tech On Twitter. Her biz podcast 10 Minute Podcast is available on iTunes and Player.fm. Follow her on Twitter at @Jenebaspeaks. Buy her templates over at her legal and business templates on Etsy shop!
