Our Statement on Inclusivity in Support of #StopAsianHate

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere– Martin Luther King Jr.   Late in May of 2020, the light of Black Lives Matter shone brightly on the racial injustices that plagued minority workers and people of color. Almost a year later there has been a surge in hate crime attacks against the Asian and Pacific Islander community in America.    All over the country it has been and continues to be imperative that we can’t let up our efforts for inclusion at work.   It all comes back to inclusivity.  The rise in attacks on our Asian colleagues, mentors, and friends reminds us that the work surrounding inclusivity is far from over. We’ve been asked to pick up the rug a little bit more; to…

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Managing Remote Teams #2: How to Bring the Real YOU by Creating Group Norms

Read more about the article Managing Remote Teams #2: How to Bring the Real YOU by Creating Group Norms
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  Managers are expected to be office superheroes. To be a bastion of company culture. To master their own responsibilities while shepherding a team of high-performing individuals. Especially when managing remote teams. A sign of terrific culture is a high-performing team. High-performing teams are made up of individual contributors that are in synch and fire on all cylinders. They trust each other. They communicate.   We now know that a consistent trait of high-performing teams is that the people in them feel safe to be their authentic selves; they feel they can express their ideas without fear of reproach (thanks for studying this, Google). The thing that makes team members bring their authentic self to work? Psychological safety.   Coined by Amy Edmunson, a…

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Managing Remote Teams #1: Facilitating Group Decision-Making

No, that meeting could not have been an email. What’s worse than another Zoom meeting without any outcome? An endless email chain where a decision is trying to be made. When managing remote teams, how do you cultivate a positive team culture around communication, specifically group decision-making? Managers, one simple way to engage your employees while working remotely is to invite them into the decision-making process. Get their voices, opinions, ideas, input, and agreement on decisions that impact the business and the team itself. Be clear and know what type of leadership behavior to bring with you to a meeting…

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Pivoting in Crisis. How Ahead of the Curve Are You?

Since March 2020, the nation’s workplace has undergone an unplanned transformation that few have ever experienced. Unlike the economic crash of 2008 that displaced many jobs and forced folks into new career paths, the COIVD-19 pandemic drives us to look at how workplace culture relates to our existing careers. As of September of 2020, many people in the workforce are still uncertain and frustrated, while others have started to experiment and integrate new realities into their work lives. Where managers fall in this process hinges on how much they believe in their organization’s greater purpose. Organizations have had to change…

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Managers — Don’t Plan a Meeting. Facilitate a Forum

Employees need to be heard. Especially now. In this heartfelt letter, Gary Burnison, CEO of Korn Ferry, reminds us that everyone on our team has stories and experiences that they are yearning to share. This letter also reminds us that, right now, executives and employees alike are all riding the emotional curve. The emotional curve, otherwise known as the Kübler-Ross change curve or the stages of grief, show up in the workplace more often than one may think. At Culture-Rific, we have been using the emotional curve for years with managers in our change leadership and organizational development programs. When…

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Workplace Equality, Where We Stand

Is there a problem of racial inequality in the American workplace? Do organizations consciously or unconsciously and consistently violate their stated values? The answer is YES, absolutely. When we began Culture-Rific, we committed to lead with this mission: We want YOU to have the best days of your life at work. As leaders, we are advocates for the people we care about — ALL people at work. As white people, we have benefited from a system that unfairly and disproportionally disadvantages our black colleagues, employees, and friends. Corporate trainer Dana Brownlee makes it perfectly clear both why and how this is the…

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