Failure to Communicate

Almost every company has motivational posters hanging on their walls. These posters typically feature words like teamwork, commitment and excellence. In order to get the most out of their workforce, a great many companies also conduct ongoing structured motivational training that focuses on how to become highly successful, work more efficiently as a team or think out of the box. These are well intentioned efforts that most often lead nowhere.

I believe the determining factor in the success or failure of this training comes down to one simple concept: happiness. Happy workplaces are fueled by camaraderie and the joy of hard work. Workplaces polluted with unhappiness are broken, mean spirited, dysfunctional and unproductive. The root cause of workplace unhappiness is a lack of another simple concept: civility. I am continuously shocked by the number of stories I hear about leaders and coworkers actually screaming at people in the workplace. You can’t have teamwork, commitment or excellence in an unhappy workplace. To fix a broken workplace you have to throw out all of the standard-issue, corporate motivational teaching and get more basic. You have to actually teach civility.

To combat workplace meanies I have designed a poster that reminds people to practice civility in the workplace. Download it for free from our blog and hang it on your office wall. It’ll keep the meanies at bay like garlic to a vampire.

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