3 ways to create a work culture that brings out the best in employees | Chris White | TEDxAtlanta

[Music] do you remember when 20,000 people walked out of Google in protest of unfair and une equal treatment of women at the company on a single day the protest was dramatic it was headline grabbing it sent a clear signal we will no longer check our identities and our values at the workplace door it was also the exception rather than the rule because while Brave certainly Brave the Google employees felt safe enough to organize collectively without fear of reprisals they felt secure enough that even if they lost their jobs they'd still probably be highly employable somewhere

else not everyone has that luxury not everyone feels that way about speaking up at work social movement Scholars would call the Google walkouts uh mobilizing structure others mobilize in different ways depending on their context and their cause in fact walkouts do happen pretty much every day in the workplace they're just not normally done with our feet instead they're checkouts there are invisible walkouts that happen with our hearts and with our hands and with our voices and let's be honest amongst the Ted group here pretty much all of us have checked out at some point in

our careers haven't we when we feel psychologically unsafe or unvalued we protest quietly sometimes even silently or subconsciously maybe we stop trying as hard at work or maybe we act in ways that subtly undermine leadership or act against the organization's objectives just a little bit in corporate speak we become disengaged or actively disengaged like 70% of the workforce at a cost of hundreds of billions of dollars a year to the global economy so if you're an executive and you want to avoid walkouts or checkouts before they become issues at your organization there are three things

that you can do first unblock communication walkouts and checkouts happen when we feel that we're not being heard we're not being respected or considered in the workplace and just about all of us have experienced having our ideas shut down or ignored in the workplace when it happens we tend to experience it as an identity threat some of us respond to that by closing down shutting off when we feel that we don't belong or that we're unimportant our reaction is to stop caring as much about our work and caring as much about the people around us

so I remember feeling heartbroken when I was a new manager I just asked a colleague of mine with Decades of work experience for a recommendation on a problem that she'd brought to me we stood in agonizing silence while she searched for an answer any answer after a long pause she looked up and said I have never been asked what I think at work before now that is tragic and it's all too common and to avoid this Pitfall we need to continually invite people to speak up at work because make making these invitations just a routine

part of how we engage with each other in the workplace actually lays really important ground work that is needed for those times when people have to speak up and have to be heard on issues that are hard for management to hear backed into a corner by the scale and the intensity of the protests Google CEO Sund Pai had a choice he could choose to respond in a way that would close the door to people acting in line with their values or he could choose to open it wider pai's public response to the protest was not

defensive instead he sent an email out to the whole company he said I understand the anger and disappointment that many of you feel feel I feel it too and I'm fully committed to making progress on an issue that has persisted for far too long in our society and yes here at Google to he informed managers of the planned activities he reassured protests that they would have the support that they needed but check out out s because they're invisible are even harder to notice and address than a 20,000 person walk out instead managers have to proactively

unblock the organization they need to ask questions they need to invite input they need to Foster creative conflict but especially in that fragile moment where people have the courage to challenge us we too need to embrace them for it but then we need to become responsive because we know don't we that it's not enough just to hear people out words without action breed cynicism they lead lay their seeds for future walkouts and checkouts the Google walkouts were not a first step they were a last resort the Google employees had already spoken to managers and HR

and people this was an escalation because they felt their issues were not being addressed they're not being taken seriously and while pai's response was a good one it was supportive some people continue protesting to this day at Google because they do not feel that sufficient action has followed the supportive words now when managers and employee activists are on the same page then action is a natural Next Step but here's the thing we're not always going to agree are we sometimes employee activists will raise issues that managers just don't agree with and in that fragile moment

we will determine what kind of culture we will have will we engage in dialogue and debate can we stay unified even in descent or will we choose to SC over our differences allow our relationships to become inauthentic and our identities to become diluted what will it be well at a minimum we can try to have dialogue we can try to resolve our differences and find common ground that even if it's not ideal for any one party might be acceptable for all and sometimes though that is just too hard the Common Ground can't found and in

that difficult place we have three choices first if we feel we can't live with the resolution then we can choose to leave the company we can find employers whose values more closely align with our own or second we can choose to stay with the company we can compartmentalize keep doing a good job and hope for an issue look for look for a time to address the issue again in the future Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is an advocate of a third path he says let's disagree and commit address the issue head on and he'll ask his

team look I know we don't agree here but will you gamble with me on it and if your reservoir of trust in your relationship is deep enough you can continue to move forward on the work and agree to keep working on the issue as you go any one of those options is better than the alternative of checking out which is a Surefire path to organizational demise and professional misery so finally aim higher doesn't it seem like a low bar just to avoid checkouts and walkouts shouldn't we strive for more we need to invite people to

bring their whol selves to work because when everyone can bring their life experiences we just have so much more to offer we are more than the sum of our resumés this is Joan Bohan Joan is a finance director at Disney Europe she's also a mother and her son Roman has dyslexia did you know that one in 10 people live with dyslexia that's a huge population serve a huge potential market for a company like Disney so when Disney announced an internal contest uh for new and impactful business ideas Joan just couldn't resist applying she had heard

about modifications that made it easier for disect 6 to read wider uh White different larger fonts wider spaces between letters ruling between lines but these weren't widely available could Disney help with that because Disney invited Joan to bring her whole self to work and all of her unique strengths values passions experiences they can now better serve millions of people with dyslexia so all this sounds good unblock communication become responsive aim higher Where Do We Begin well I'd like to end by offering you a short test I'd like you on Monday morning to go back into

work and I'd like you to walk around and after some pleasant chitchat talk to 10 different people and ask them this question hi what don't we talk about around here that we really should be talking about you'll probably get one of those awkward silences and that's okay if they do pause then say come to me later tell me what you find if no one has anything then your organization is probably blocked but that's okay by asking the question you have signaled openness keep going keep asking the questions Ari weinig CEO of zingman like to say

success doesn't mean we have no problems it means we have better problems and my closing wish for you is that you earn better Problems by unblocking communication by becoming responsive over time more and more people will open up and start sharing more of theirselves their ideas their unique offerings and over time you will have a new better problem harnessing that energy and aiming higher thank you