CASE STUDY
How We Build Healthy Workplace Culture Within a Diverse Organization
The Challenge
In a culturally diverse organization, frictions arise frequently in an increasingly fast-paced work environment where cross-functional coordination is critical to serving customers.
The organization experienced the following challenges:
- Cascading employee attrition
- Low employee morale
- Employees were too burnt out to collaborate and innovate
- Employees resisted organization change initiatives
- Employees were too busy to attend trainings
The Goals
Zhennovate solution was employed to help:
- Boost organizational capacity to collaborate across boundaries
- Ignite employees morale for the shared mission
- Evoke employees’ personal agency in overcoming the personal blockers that held them back at work
- Motivate employee development in today’s busy lifestyle
Our Approach
Step 1: Identify the root cause
Zhennovate worked with employees of all levels to diagnose the root cause of the organizational challenges, using systems thinking frameworks.
Step 2: Customize for organizational needs
To address the root causes, we customized our coaching solution to support employees in developing the following foundational skills:
Step 3: Deliver micro-coaching to enable daily experiential learning, fostering personal growth in tiny moments at work
Zhennovate’s coaching app delivered the on-demand customized micro-coaching curriculum to help employees of all levels work through their personal blockers.
Employees spent 5-10 minutes a day working through the app’s coaching-like interactions at their own pace.
Results – Steadfast transformation starts from the grassroots
Results happen as the app continuously reinforces employees’ mindset and behavioral shifts in daily work.
In just 4 weeks of engagement, users experienced the following:
%
Felt more intentional in daily work
%
Reinforced existing awareness
%
Gained unexpected blind spot awareness
%
Planned new actions at work
Here’s a sample of anonymized transformative moments employees articulated on the app as they worked through their personal blockers:
A Sample of Awareness Gained
I’ve been thinking about my relationship to failure and I really get how I basically only do things I know I’m going to ace. But I’m starting to see why my creativity has been so stifled – because I only do things that I’m close to perfect at.
Because I’ve learned better, more than just an “I’m sorry,” but a REALLY GOOD apology, like, detailed, honest, open, whole, complete, acknowledging every part of what was wrong and how I can do better.
It’s important to recognize the drama and understand the choices I have and personal agency.
There never seems to be “down” time that is important for me and my productivity. I need to remind myself of how this can affect work relationships, recognize the choices I am making (and check them), and reflect on how the choices relate to objectives.
A Sample of Intentions Created
I won’t allow what I “think” others are thinking to shape what I will say or ideas that I would like to put forward.
I have been thinking about culturally responsive design. I have been saying all year that “The things I hand out to customers are pretty prescribed. What can I DO?” Recently, I realized I needed that last sentence to be “What CAN I do?” and roll up my sleeves and get to work. Just because it is hard doesn’t mean I am absolved of responsibility. So time to dig in and earn my keep at this place.
If I trust that I do not have to solve all problems, that others can solve their own, I can coach instead of rescuing and I can avoid victimhood.
Also, focusing on goals and communicating those with others. By focusing on goals and choices, I think it takes it out of this drama and becomes less of a source of frustration and potential conflict.
I would like to support a colleague in achieving greater success, including my communicating more clearly expectations/tasks/responsibilities. I will ask my team for help in clarifying those
I need to find ways to restructure my team’s interactions so that we spend more time talking about what is awesome about each other than we do talking about what sucks.
A Sample of Actions Taken
Today, I asked a colleague for help on the presentation. Moving forward I’m going to ask for collaborators on building the program next year.
New action I am practicing this week – Being willing to engage in “discovery” conversations where you talk to people without knowing where the conversation will go, but looking for common ground and shared purpose.
I have found myself naming the drama role that I think I may be playing when I feel myself starting to get sucked into dramatic feelings or actions.
The lessons and reflections did a great job orienting my mind to the right place. I was able to think of the Kudo board when the lesson asked me to pass acknowledgement to someone else.
The lesson helped me overcome the initial stress wave of the long to-do list and tight schedule. Later in the day, I worked the remaining stress out.
Thanks for the lesson. I was able to remember this advice during the day and take on some task that looked intimidating.
I am simply thrilled with the decision to support employees in this way… This could be a complete game changer.
Erin, Employee
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