This week I’m tuning in to listen to Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos, talk about the unique culture he and his team have built at Zappos. That got me thinking about corporate culture in general and just how important it really is.  Many traditional companies believe that there too much emphasis placed on fun and creativity in the new Web 2.0 corporate cultures. I personally think that these new, forward thinking, culture-focused companies have got it right.  Read the rest of this post

Do you frequently feel stressed at work?  If you do, you’re probably not alone.  Chances are that others on your team feel stressed too.  OK, so you feel stressed. Big deal right? Who isn’t stressed these days? We all have a great deal that is expected of us and most of us feel like we have very little control over whether or not we are able to perform well.  Unfortunately when our day-to-day work environment or corporate culture make us start internalizing these attitudes, we start to experience what Martin Seligman terms “learned helplessness”.  Learned helplessness is a perception of inescapability and the acceptance that things just aren’t going to get any better. Once we fall into this state, it’s a vicious circle that keeps feeding our stress and leads to depression and the belief that we are worthless. Ultimately, this robs us of our creativity and our ability to solve problems.  Read the rest of this post

This morning I spent some time with a team going through some serious morale issues.  Lots of things seemed to be getting the team members down, but when they broke it down to the “root cause” it seemed that the team just wasn’t having fun anymore. There is no sense of playfulness at all. In fact, the few times they did try playing a bit, they felt guilty and were the object of organizational scrutiny for “playing” on the job.  Read the rest of this post

I overheard a conversation last week in which someone said “Today’s corporate culture has no heartbeat…no soul.” And to a certain extent I agree.  There may be a good reason why it seems like corporate cultures lack a soul.  Ever since I started my career back in the early 90′s the mantra was “It’s not personal, it’s just business”. That mantra has extended itself into who we are when we come to work.  For some reason or other, it’s become the norm to check our personalities, our passions, our emotions at the door.  Read the rest of this post