2016: Micro Goals/Dance Steps to improve your workplace culture

By: Kris Boesch Friday January 8, 2016 Tags: Kris Boesch, Choose People

If 2016 is your year -- your year of creating an extraordinary workplace experience for your team -- I’d like to suggest the following: dance steps.  

I love transformation, big change and lofty goals – 2016 is going to be the Best Year EVER!!!   

And is it? Depends on what you do every day.   

Go for the big goal, and take on micro goals to get there. If you were going to have your entire team wow the world with a flash mob, you’d have to choose the music, nail down the rhythm, create the choreography and learn the steps and practice, practice, practice. 

Keep in mind when it comes to workplace culture, emotional intimacy is the secret ingredient to the secret sauce. People want to be known, to matter and be included. Here’s a list of tangible dance steps to consider in improving your workplace culture (pick 3 to start):

• Do a Temperature Check with someone on your team
• Tell someone a sincere thank you
• Introduce yourself to someone you don’t know well in another department
• Pause and notice what’s working
• Ask for help
• Ask how you can help
• Sincerely apologize
• Do the 10 minute task that would make someone’s day
• Ask someone what they’re most excited about in 2016
• Show up smiling
• Share a bad PG joke
• Ask, “What do you think?” (need, want, hope for)
• Let someone know how much you appreciate them and their contribution
• Create a lunch and learn (TED Talk, Storyswap, interesting business article discussion, share lessons learned/best practices)
• Assume good intentions
• When things feel wonky or mistakes are made, come from a place of curiosity and wonderment rather than assumption and judgment – compassionately ask questions to learn and understand
• Give everyone bubbles or silly putty
• Share a story of something that made you laugh
• Celebrate a small win
• Stay present, pay attention and really listen

This list of small actions can have a meaningful ripple effect. However, if your culture challenges require a tango choreography rather than a two-step, then we''ve got your back. 

For more micro-goal/dance step options...

About the Author: Kris Boesch

Kris Boesch is CEO and founder of Choose People, a company that transforms company cultures, increases employee happiness and boosts the bottom-line. The Choose People 360° Culture Audit is based on over 1,000 hours of research Boesch conducted with a team of doctoral students in the Industrial Organizational Psychology Department at Colorado State University.  Prior to Choose People, Boesch was the CEO of Exodus Moving & Storage.  Under her leadership, Exodus became the largest mover in Northern Colorado with a turnover rate nearly 40% less than the industry average and a bottom line twice that same average.