FOREWORD

Culture is the underlying fabric that holds an organization together. When the fabric is strong, groups can endure major challenges and thrive during better times. If the fabric is tattered, groups may manage to get by, but employees, projects, and clients fall through the gaps. In cases where the cultural fabric is falling apart, groups and organizations become so dysfunctional that they are a detriment to the health and well-being of their workers, customers, and clients.

As Kevin Oakes describes in the pages that follow, few things are as important to an organization’s long-term health as the culture that permeates its daily operations. Yet most companies have not spent enough time building a culture that produces sustainable benefits for the employees, customers, and communities they serve. As a result, employees show up each day and operate at a fraction of their capacity. Often, they go home with less energy than they had when they arrived. When a culture is unhealthy, customers take note. Employees’ family members notice and feel the residual ill effects. But it certainly does not need to be this way.

In my estimation, organizations are the single best way for increasing the collective well-being of society. If you think about this for a moment, we spend more waking hours at work than we do engaged in any other activity. Yet for most people, time at work is rated as one of the least enjoyable experiences in a day. This creates an enormous well-being gap—one that leaves limitless social good and potential productivity untapped.

If we close this well-being gap, workers can leave work with more energy than when they arrive. They can be better friends, parents, and spouses when they get home. Employees will get involved in, and contribute more to, their communities. This starts when leaders focus on building a culture that serves a bigger purpose and demonstrably improves employees’ holistic well-being.

Leading by Example Is Not Optional

After studying and writing books about leadership and well-being for the last 20 years, one central learning emerged: Creating a healthier culture must start at the top. If it does not, any initiatives to improve culture and well-being will likely fail. In contrast to programs I have seen on strengths development and employee engagement, which can be very effective in small groups and pockets of organizations, shifting an entire culture for the better is almost impossible if a company’s top executives are not involved.

If an organization spends millions on an HR or benefits-driven program intended to build a culture of well-being, but has a CEO who demonstrates he does not value his own well-being, this will quickly undermine almost all these efforts. Especially when it comes to culture, leaders set the tone. If a leader is not demonstrating the values espoused, few will follow, and any downstream efforts will be perceived as an inauthentic waste of time and money. When a leader sees herself as a role model and follows the stated cultural values, employees will believe, follow, and benefit.

This role of the leader is central, and greatly magnified, in the pursuit of true culture renovation. As Kevin describes so eloquently in this book, massive social and culture change is possible. Reading the accounts in these chapters actually renewed my faith in an organization’s ability to significantly improve. As you will hear, one powerful leadership team can change the trajectory of an important global organization in the span of a few years. Yes, it takes a lot of hard work, heavy lifting, powerful relationships, and a little patience. But if you succeed in the process of culture renovation, it could pay dividends for decades to come.

Simply put, you can build a high-performance culture that demonstrably improves people’s lives in parallel. As you embark on a path of culture change, I challenge you to measure its effectiveness not only with traditional metrics (e.g., production, quality, retention) but also with outcomes that ultimately matter most to each of us as people.

  If employees work for your organization for the next two years, will they be healthier as a result?

  Will they be better parents, friends, or spouses because they joined your organization?

  Will those employees be more involved in and give more back to the local community?

  Can you prove employees have less stress (about work, finances, etc.) because they join your organization?

  Do employees feel like they are serving a bigger mission or purpose with your organization?

  Can they see if and how they are improving the lives of others every day?

These are rough and informal questions, but I hope they touch on more meaningful elements that can define the future social contract between people and organizations. When you think about renovating a culture, remember that extracting as much as you can out of each employee is no longer the key outcome. Demonstrating how your organization and culture build people up (employees, customers, clients, communities) should be the new gold standard.

Creating organizations and cultures that change the world starts with one leader who takes the initiative, leads by example, and inspires others to follow. As you read the stories and case studies in the chapters that follow, think about how you could be that spark that starts a needed fire within your organization. This is change we desperately need.

Institutions should build people up instead of breaking them down. This happens one organization at a time. Inside that organization, it begins with one leader who is determined to start a culture renovation.

Tom Rath

October 7, 2020