Workplace Cultures: Toxicity After a Merger

In the past, I had worked as an executive admin with a company. During my time there, my company merged with a larger organization. As you can imagine, this made for a rough period for the employees.

That merger brought many changes over the long run, where the workforce had turned into a battlefield of built up frustrations among the employees. The larger company decided to roll out a training program called “One Team” to enhance the merger of the two contrasting cultures. The program describes the principle of “One Team”, which means to be authentic, to build trust, and to make connections. It’s a fun and great program that is engaging, simple, grounded and real. However, I believe in order to obtain employees’ buy-in, change starts from the top. ‘One Team’ was an odd name for this program, but while many colleagues chuckled, I could see its benefit to our company was definitely worth it.

What it means to be One Team

• Doing the best job possible and perform above expectations,
• Offering innovative ideas to improve things, you have productive work relationships,
• Collaborating with others to make informed decisions
• Being thoughtful and considerate of others
• Providing people with support and encouragement
• Accepting change easily
• Having a strong desire to learn and experience new things
• Believing it’s your personal responsibility to “win” the customer
• Listening and asking questions
• Consciously making decisions that make good business sense.

How do you deal with a toxic work culture?

Culture, is the way we think, act and interact with one another. By thinking about the way we do things and how we work together, we can achieve more and make the organization an even better place to work.
However, to affect change, this starts from the top and trickles down, not the other way around. I have seen in the past, leaders expecting the change to begin from the bottom up. In one hundred out of one hundred times, this never works!

For leaders to inspire change, they need to model the change they wish to see in their organization. This is not a task that leaders need to delegate it’s a journey where leaders will need to lead with passion, conviction and tenacity, if they seek a better work culture. Simply put, it takes time and effort to rebuild your company culture.

Thinking drives our behaviors

The desired outcome is that our core values guide our decision making and best practices come to life through One Team; when people show authenticity, build trust with each other, and make qualified connections. Thinking drives our behaviors, which is the result of our thought habits and thinking. Win/lose thinking creates win/lose behaviors. Insights help to change your thinking, which in turn helps to change your life. When one focuses on being a ‘single team’, one will focus on high priority items in life, at work or in meetings, the question becomes what is the most valuable use of my time and energy?

There is a rationale behind the reason for the changes. Once people in the workplace practice becoming mindful and aware of their behaviors (resulting from our internal thoughts habits), it will help provide insights into how that affects our mood, and the way we see everything. The goal is to be aware of our filters and shed some light on our own biases, whether we are acting consciously or unconsciously. Discrimination is real and we all play a part in it whether we cover it up with our political correctness or lack thereof. What shadow do we cast? Who we are and how we carry ourselves influences all those who look up to us, at work and at home. Not just what we say but even our mood impacts those around us.

What is The Mood Elevator?

These are the feelings we experience based on our thinking. The mood elevator is the level/state your mood is at (listed below). Lower levels are less effective and reliable; upper levels are more positive and resourceful. Lower emotional intelligence can be found while in lower level mood states.

Higher level of the mood elevator

• grateful
• wise
• creative
• optimistic
• appreciative
• understanding
• curious

Lower level of the mood elevator

• stressed
• judgmental
• defensive
• anxious
• irritated
• frustrated
• angry/annoyed
• insecure

We must keep moving forward

Today’s workplace is different from the workplace of the 1950s, gone are the days where much of the workforce are male dominant. Organizations nowadays can’t afford to be stuck in the past. In an ever-changing environment, we experience more diverse generations entering the workplace. Organizations must be sensitive to the impact different cultural backgrounds, and diverse generations play at changing our existing core values and overall mission. Respectful interactions with each other and openness to learning and new ideas are key. Showing up every day with personal accountability and commitment to our work and our team, taking ownership for our output of work and caring enough in doing the right thing for our employees, affects the overall of organization and our customers. In short, the goal would be leading with excellence together through shared vision and innovation.

It is important to stay curious, we all have blind spots, and nothing is certain as we should rely on the wisdom of our team members for better results. Understanding what shadows, we cast can help reduce outbursts and hostile work environments. Learning that all styles get results, being mindful on how our style shows up when working with one or more other style that is different than ours. Giving the benefit of the doubt and assuming positive intent, is one example of producing a positive and safe team environment that allows for openness, collaborations and room for mishaps without fear of being penalized. Organizations are encouraged to create and influence a mindset of staying curious; learning is growing and failing is experience.

Final Thoughts

In terms of culture change, whether it’s One Team training, or change management it’s the responsibility of the leaders to support and inspire a positive, open, empowered and knowledge-sharing workplace environment. Additionally, this will lend to celebrating growth, adapting to change, and staying curious. The goal is to have the organization adopt and adapt to innovative ways of doing things, to bring forth improvements in the output and the input of job performance with process and efficiency in mind.