Cultural Generosity, Does Your Organization Have It?
You can have all of the effort imaginable but it won’t take your team or organization very far if the culture lacks positive flow. Generosity has helped millions of people with many different needs. Your organization needs a positive culture to maximize ROI. Does your organization have cultural generosity?
Cultural Generosity
What is cultural generosity? Have you ever attended a workplace meeting where nearly everyone shows up physically, but mentally they don’t really participate or contribute?
Sure, they like to have their coffee, access to their device, and will grab a couple of cookies or a donut, but are they really present?
In many meetings, you can be the person who contributes. You can be the one who is engaged, participating, and taking risks with your contributions. You are not the naysayer, the wrench thrown into the wheel, or a dark cloud hovering over an otherwise sunny day.
Your presence, your ideas, and the contributions you make add energy. You’ve reviewed the agenda, you did the homework, and you have ideas, potential solutions, and enthusiasm for improvement.
You wave your hand to show you’ll help, offer assistance, or take on the new task. You exemplify cultural generosity and are a great role model.
Fence Sitters
There are also fence sitters. Those who don’t really contribute much but they are watching. Their mission is often not to decide for himself or herself but to follow the flow of the crowd, or follow the political current seems to make the most sense.
Are they contributing to a positive culture? Perhaps, sometimes, but often in efforts that require change it is easier to find the reasons why it won’t work instead of offering reasons why it will.
The fence sitters contribution is weak at best.
Naysayers
Of course, we cannot forget about the naysayers, the passively aggressive quiet one who is cloaked in the corporate uniform but leading a different charge. There is often a smile, but don’t mistake it for agreement. When a smile becomes a smirk, it won’t be doing much to support a positive culture.
In fact, the fence sitters, naysayers, and the passively aggressive watcher are probably taking away more energy than what they are giving.
Practice Cultural Generosity
What should you do? Practice cultural generosity. Make energy, build on others ideas, and offer solutions instead of problems.
Instead of a flow of why it is a bad idea, why things won’t work, or why failure is lurking at every milestone, make a plan to be part of the fix.
The best organizational cultures have positive energy. The secret is to put in more than you take out.
– DEG
Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSPTM), and corporate trainer that specializes in helping businesses and individuals accelerate their leadership, their team, and their success. He is a five-time author and some of his work includes, #CustServ The Customer Service Culture, and Forgotten Respect, Navigating A Multigenerational Workforce. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.
