Action vs. Words for Organizational Impact

By Ashley Dugger

Most of us have probably worked somewhere with those motivational posters on the walls. You know the ones I’m talking about. Serene images of nature accompanied by an inspirational message of flourishing teamwork, determination, trust, and integrity within the walls of the office buildings of the company. The problem with these posters is that so often, many employees found that they were simply images and words without any substance relating to the day-to-day actions of the people surrounding them at work or embedded in the realities of the actual organizational culture.

Instead of motivating workers, the posters had the opposite impact and only served to highlight the disparity between words versus actions when it comes to organizational culture and the impact it has on not only our daily working lives, but also the trickle-down impact of how we are treated at work shapes our relationships and experiences in our personal lives. If lack of alignment in organizational cultural beliefs and reality is causing burnout, frustration, and high stress loads at work, you may be more likely to take those feelings home and have them manifest in conversations and interactions with family, friends, and neighbors. 

A recent Forbes article by Paula Morgan details how important it is to jobseekers that the companies they work for have values that reflect their own, and that as the organizational culture deteriorates, “71% of employees would look for new opportunities elsewhere.” A positive, healthy organizational culture not only helps companies retain strong talent, but is also critical for attracting new talent in a competitive landscape. 

Culture impacts our productivity and quality of work performance, and our ability to build strong, trusting relationships with colleagues. Culture can and foster inclusive environments where employees feel comfortable being their true selves with their teammates without fear of being treated differently or negatively. It also fosters an environment that can spark more creative problem solving, increase cross-functional teamwork and collaboration, and encourage employees to invest time and effort into upskilling and reskilling in order to impact not only organizational outcomes but shape the future of their career paths as well. Gallup has noted that company culture plays a strong role in ensuring alignment between employees’ goals and organization-wide goals, resulting in a “more compelling employee experience.” 

Employee surveys, focus groups, and employee resource groups are great places to start in terms of analyzing your current organizational climate and how it compares to expectations from employees as well as alignment to stated organizational mission, vision, values, and cultural beliefs. When there is a gap, remember that influencing and reshaping organizational culture is not only the work of the leadership teams – every employee plays a critical role in driving strong org cultures through day-to-day actions and interactions with colleagues, demonstrated work ethic, integrity, and ability to be self-aware. 

According to SHRM, HR in particular has a unique opportunity to influence the world of work around them through “recruiting and selecting applicants who will share the organization’s beliefs and thrive in that culture, developing orientation, training, and performance management programs that outline and reinforce the organization’s core values and ensuring that appropriate rewards and recognition go to employees who truly embody the values.” 

When you find a gap between the stated culture and the day-to-day reality, the first step is to ensure you initiate action to resolve the discrepancy immediately. Set a specific target with tangible action steps toward a culture goal/improvement, with a designated and transparent timeline of how the actions outlined will get you to your goal in the noted time frame. Talk openly, honestly, and genuinely with employees when discrepancies are brought to your attention and ensure your leadership team is willing to do the same, so they are setting a top-down experience and expectation that all employees are responsible for contributing positively to org culture and holding each other accountable. 

Don’t overwhelm yourself, your HR team, your leaders, or your employees with multiple action items all at once. Small steps can have a huge impact and create a snowball effect when it comes to tackling moving from words to actions to positively influence org culture changes! Offering multiple town hall meetings and open-forum discussions, providing various training options for synchronous and asynchronous reskilling and upskilling around methods for impacting culture, communicating how actions and words drive change, and continuously following up to show employees how you are acting based on feedback can make a lasting difference. 

At the heart of most employee dissatisfaction is that they feel they are not being heard, and that even if they are heard, no tangible action to improve is being taken. Showing your workforce that the organization’s intention is to align values, beliefs, and actions as more than words alone can impact not only the company’s success but the employee experience for all workers who can take that positive experience and reflect it back into their communities.