HR PERSPECTIVE
foster innovation.” In a Level 4 organisation, people share ideas, as well as celebrate and praise success, and there is a decentralisation of decision-making. The purpose of the company is aligned with individual purpose.
WHY GENDER BALANCE MATTERS “We know that many companies are not gender-balanced,” Professor Hlupic says. “While it may be equal at the recruitment stage, at the higher levels of management women are under- represented. Even with targets, the representation is 20 or 30 per cent at best and progress is slow.” Yet 60 per cent of graduates in the UK are female. “We have
a well-educated female population and 80 per cent of purchasing decisions are made by women,” she says. “The customer base is female, but companies are mostly run by men. The discrepancy does not make economic sense.” The ripple effect is, therefore, something that women at work
can use subtly to start to change the very fabric of the organisation – for the better. “With our brains, we pick up the moods and emotions of people around us. If we create positive ripples, that grows. The better it is, the better it gets.” These small changes can help move your team towards a
Level 4 mindset, make your organisation a better place to work. Professor Hlupic says, “As more organisations become Level 4, the whole of society will start to shift.” So how can we begin this peaceful workplace revolution? The
first steps are to start using the language of Level 4 organisations – a language that is positive, inclusive and working towards a common purpose. “As an individual, you need to be at Level 3 and you need to use the language of the level above,” she explains. “At Level 3, people talk about I, me, mine, whereas at Level 4 the language is we, us, team.” The next stage is to involve your team in tasks that require
collaboration, thus creating conditions for people to interact and spark ideas off each other. And it is not just women who can benefit from this shift in mindset. “The ripple effect works for all genders. If women are surrounded by colleagues who have Level 4 thinking, this can benefit them. Plus, we need more Level 4 women at the top of organisations.” Finally, a company needs to create a culture where staff trust
their leaders. “Trust makes a big difference to an organisation. Trust and transparency make the glue that binds Level 4 teams together, but it is not always easy to create that type of culture.”
HOW THE RIPPLE EFFECT CAN HELP RECRUITMENT AND RETENTION A lot of companies are bogged down by complacency and a lack of awareness of how to change. As the shift starts to happen, it can gather momentum. “People get a flavour of how much better it is to work at Level 4 and how you get more done with less effort,” Professor Hlupic explains. It is not a quick fix though and people have to be ready for
change because it is not easy. “When we face change we see it as a threat in our brain, causing stress and anxiety at the fear of losing status or the privileges that we have,” she says. Making the changes can create a much more attractive workplace, which in turn means it will be easier to recruit new staff. If a company can change, it can attract new workers and retain
its existing staff. In a global economy that is suffering from a skills shortage, this is a distinct competitive edge. “People can even come back and work for a lower salary if the company fits with their values,” she says. That explains the appeal of start-ups, particularly among Millennial workers. “Many start-ups are Level 4 with an element of Level 5.” They have big ideas and they are not afraid to experiment.
“Larger organisations are more like super-tankers. They are more difficult to change. When I work with organisations, I help leaders to change one department at a time. It takes six to nine months to see a shift. Then other parts of the company want to emulate this and it starts to have an effect across the whole of the workplace, even though change happens more slowly in large organisations.” The first step is to have a leader who is willing to go on
the journey and who supports collaborative, informal ways of communicating and who welcomes innovation and new ideas. With so much change happening so quickly in the wider economy, organisations that ignore the effects of the Fourth Industrial Revolution do so at their peril. It’s also encouraging that change can take place on a granular
level, by each one of us taking steps to create a more positive culture where we work. The message of IWD and our keynote speaker was that we can
all make a difference. Our language, positivity and willingness to change our workplace culture creates a ripple effect that benefits ourselves, our fellow workers and our organisation, and leads in time to a shift in society as a whole. At a time when the world is facing huge uncertainty, this is a positive message to embrace and be inspired by.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Professor Hlupic is the world’s top 11 Most Influential HR Thinker, an international award-winning thought leader on Leadership 4.0, an activist for humanising management and author ofThe Management Shift - How to Harness the Power of People and Transform Your Organization for Sustainable Success and her latest book Humane Capital: How to Create a Management Shift to Transform Performance and Profit. She is also a professor of leadership and organisational
transformation at Hult Ashridge Executive Education; visiting professor in the Department of Organisational Psychology at Birkbeck, University of London; visiting faculty at Cass Business School, City University of London; visiting faculty at the University of the Arts London; a former adjunct faculty at London Business School; a consultant for Said Business School; and a former professor of business and management at the University of Westminster.
Join Professor Vlatka Hlupic’s live webinar as part of our Virtual Festival of Global People series. Check the website for more details and see p22.
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