Speaker 1: Any expert with experience creating a positive work culture will tell you it's all about one thing. People. Improving their experience at work will, by proxy, improve the culture of any organization. Here's five ways you can make it a positive one. Number five, collect feedback. Such a huge endeavor like making impactful changes to your company culture requires an idea of what to focus on. Knowing what you should do to make your work culture more positive should start by asking the people who experience it every day.

Speaker 2: If I was part of an organization that was new and had this passion around a key driver for us is going to be creating a human workplace, I would say let's pool all of our thoughts on, one, what we think that means, two, how we think we get there, and then start to coalesce that into how does that translate into work, what needs to exist here and be true no matter what part of the business you're in, as we think about growth and scale, etc.

Speaker 1: Number four, celebrate life events. One of the most powerful ways to show employees you care about them and their well-being is to acknowledge who they are outside the confines of work.

Speaker 3: If you get all the peers around you recognizing you, celebrating who you are, and essentially saying to you, I not only see what you're doing at work and appreciate it, I see who you are, that's a connection to all these different people who are doing that for you. And each of those connections is a tie to the organization. When this is happening really well and across a number of peers, the person feels like they're part of a community and people don't leave their communities easily.

Speaker 1: Number three, build trust. At the core of every great relationship is trust. And one of the quickest ways to establish that is to communicate. At work, a critical communication practice is the check-in. A chance for managers, employers, and even peers to see how things are going and what's happening at home or at work.

Speaker 3: So I like to talk about what I call the generous check-in. Please don't just check in on what the person is doing. Check in on how they are and who they are. But don't go in cold. OK, like you have to build a foundation for this. You can't just go in and expect people to spill their guts, especially if something rough is going on in their life. You have to set the tone and let the person know it's safe. How do you do that as a leader? You do it first. You model the behavior. I'm not saying that you should just overshare about what's going on in your personal life. What I'm saying is be vulnerable.

Speaker 1: Number two, recognize your employees. It seems basic, but some people still don't see the value of showing appreciation at work. Dr. Misha Ann Martin, do you have anything to say to these detractors?

Speaker 3: I say, where would you want to work? Do you want to go into work somewhere where somebody never says thank you? Where you don't feel like that organization sees and appreciates your unique talents, capabilities, and contributions? Or do you want to go to work somewhere where you feel like not only can you be yourself, but they value specifically what you bring to the table and they say thank you to that to you for that all the time? So I know where I want to work, but I also know what our research says. Our research says that people disproportionately want to work at and are likely to stay at organizations where they feel like they are appreciated. So please say thank you.

Speaker 1: Number one, prioritize psychological safety. People are at their best when they can be themselves. When they aren't afraid to take a risk or make a suggestion. When they feel included for who they are. At work, we define this as psychological safety.

Speaker 4: The ideal workplace, in my opinion, would first and foremost be psychologically safe. Which means that you can express what's going on not only at work, but also what's going on outside of work. You can be fully yourself. You don't have to feel like you need to project this work persona that is different than who you are in your personal life.

Speaker 5: The truest way we can create a psychologically safe environment is to understand our people, to know our people. And understand what would make each one of them as an individual feel psychologically safe. That's going to be different for me than it is for you or for someone else on my team. And if you don't know what would make them feel psychologically safe, I might suggest you need to spend some more time with them in order to know that. Music