Change is inevitable but are you willing to adapt? By adopting an adaptive work culture, small businesses can see change as an opportunity for them to grow and become the leading industry leaders that they look up to.
In successful adaptive work cultures, all the employees of the organisation are able to collaborate effectively together. The employees are also able to network with fellow employees, customers, stakeholders and even competitors to gain more knowledge about what is happening within the industry and the external environment. Employees are allowed to innovate and experiment without fear of being reprimanded, actually within adaptive work cultures failing well is applauded.
How do you adopt an adaptive work culture?
STEP 1: Your leadership must have an adaptive mindset.
This means that they must want to be constant learners who believe that they can learn something from every situation. They should also be open to new ideas and thought patterns. By having an adaptive mindset, leaders should not be risk-averse and they should trust their gut. They should also be focused on value-adding work rather than work which just keeps them busy but adds no value to the business.
STEP 2: Your workforce should work well together
Creativity and innovation cannot occur where people work together because they are forced to. It is important to encourage healthy work relationships between your employees. You should ensure that the core values of your employees are in alignment with the core values of your business. If this is true then your employees will naturally form teams which will be able to tackle challenges in creative and innovative ways.
STEP 3: Don’t work in silos
In today’s data-driven age, the sharing of information amongst departments and teams can lead to more dynamic solutions. By being transparent with your information and getting different departments to work together you help to create a more cohesive company. By having different departments working together to tackle the problem they can come up with different viewpoints and ideas. This can also help to break any barriers which may occur because of miscommunication.
STEP 4: Listen to your employee’s ideas
If you want to be able to adapt to challenges quickly and innovatively, it is important to develop an environment within your company where employees feel safe to innovate and experiment. You should allow them the opportunity to share their ideas and you should consider their ideas no matter what position they hold in the company. It is important to seriously think about the ideas which your employees present to you. You need to be objective in your analysis of the idea and try to prevent any personal prejudice from prejudging the idea which your employee has suggested to you.
By adopting these four steps, you will be well on your way to creating an adaptive work culture. By having this culture, your business will be able to navigate through the storms of change with deft ability and trust in the crew in your business.
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