Characters, community, and culture: Important factors for prosperity

Tim Lister, a Principal of the Atlantic Systems Guild, and five of his partners at the Guild, are working on a book about workplace culture, and how to improve it.

We all talk about "best practices" but a tiny minority of organizations actually practice them all. But not to worry, think of "best practices" for human health. We know all about them, but very few of us actually practice them all. Maybe if someone did arduously practice all health practices they would forget to have a life.

Tim has come to believe that workplace culture has a huge effect on processes, strategies, and ultimately, success. The corporate culture, the unstated rules, that dominate office life, varies widely in our world. Some organizations are extremely healthy and vital, and some are dysfunctional to the point of being the Living Dead.

The first key is to identify your own organization’s behaviors. If they are positive, how can you perpetrate them across all projects? If they are negative, how can you break the habit? To do exactly that we need to recognize the underlying beliefs the organization holds that manifest those behaviors. In order to change a culture, we need to alter our underlying common beliefs.

Tim will start the talk with some examples from the book project. He will then let the audience offer up some of their own behaviors and beliefs.

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АААААА! Слишком круто, всем идти! Автор PeopleWare в России. Некогда объяснять, бегите слушать!