We talk about workplace cultures all the time. We should call it "Puzzle Place" because all the pieces have to fit together.  Organizations and their workplace cultures are really a collection of people-based interactions. The interactions could be among people, departments, the organization and customers, etc. We tend to lay a strategic blanket over the organization with surveys or engagement studies to look at trends of where people are engaged or not engaged. Kevin  Kruse wrote a great article in Forbes magazine talking about engagement and what it really means. He references employee engagement is not employee satisfaction and it's really the use of discretionary effort by employees when they are engaged (here is a link to that article:http://www.forbes.com/sites/kevinkruse/2012/06/22/employee-engagement-what-and-why/#277fe7d34629

Here are the questions we need to ask yourself to truly develop a workplace culture that is engaged in operating efficiently with discretionary effort:

• Do employees engage with their managers?
• Do departments work well together?
• Do managers from across departments defend their departments or agree on whats best for the organization?
• Are managers equipped to have conversations of conflict?
• Will employees utilize discretionary effort when the organization hits tough times?
• Do employees feel freedom to bring up ideas to help the organization or did they fear doing so because of retribution?
• Are  employees willing and skilled enough to handle conflict without it becoming a water cooler conversation?
• Do managers possess the ability to coach employees who lack motivation or possess a negative attitude?
• Do managers seek their next promotion or the promotion of their employees?

What Are Your Thoughts?