HOW TO MAINTAIN A POSITIVE WORKFORCE WHEN TIMES ARE UNCERTAIN
align using the corporate equivalent of a north star: your brand promise
My recent e-book states: “If you’ve ever stood under a high-voltage transmission line, you’ll remember the sound of energy flowing. You hear similar snaps, crackles, and pops in high-performance companies the moment you step through the door. It seems as though every employee is performing like a human dynamo”.
The ongoing generation of human energy is essential to corporate survival in a rapidly changing, uncertain world.
by LSI publisher Art McNeil
How to maintain a positive workforce: when times are tough
Align to a Corporate North Star (aka: statement of purpose/brand promise)
Early explorers never expected to reach the North Star, but they could use it to travel anywhere. When blown off course, navigators would sight-in to regain their bearings. Access to a stable, super-ordinate position during and after turbulence, allowed our ancestors to travel unfamiliar territory.
Companies need the equivalent of the North Star to make it through uncertain times. In what futurists are calling the “shift-age”, people will feel less threatened when meaningful purpose is shared with likeminded others. Unswerving commitment to a brand promise fosters tenacity and courage because it promotes faith that after a crisis, the group’s (north star/purpose/brand promise) will still be there.
The term culture is best defined as, “the collective habits used by a group of people to get things done”. The habits of many organizations form over time with no strategic focus. You may remember the science experiment where a magnet is placed under a piece of paper covered with iron filings.
Suddenly, the magnet’s energy field aligned the iron filings into a recognizable pattern. Although individual filings didn’t move far, synchronization of the direction each was pointing, transformed randomness into alignment.
The magnet/iron filings experiment metaphorically describes the effect that a compelling brand promise can have on corporate culture—a brand promise (or lack thereof) molds corporate culture