Are we in danger of alienating younger employees with corporate jargon? and are you brave enough to embrace the potential of interdependance?
I was very grateful to have the chance to sit down with Roisin, a seasoned physiotherapist and leader in healthcare, the principle reason being we had had a previous conversation at a dinner party, that really captured my interest around interdependence and how we often resist the path of being vulnerable and seeking help from our friends and colleagues. I have captured this story and other insights to share with my readers.
We started with a discussion around finding meaning at work. Roisin's perspective on the education system was particularly insightful.
"There is this urgency and almost a factory mentality," she explained, "where you've got to do exams at certain times and before you know it, you've made choices that will influence your future choices."
This resonated with me, as I had experienced a similar trajectory in my own educational journey, where early decisions had a lasting impact on the paths available to me. Through much of my school career, while I have been fast tracked along maths, physics and statistics, what I really wish to follow was a career in art and design. These paths, however, were closed off to me by the school and the academic route was presented as my only option.
"I think that's possibly the reason," Roisin continued, "why a lot of people end up working somewhere or in a field that they don't find any meaning or joy in."
I have witnessed firsthand the consequences of individuals, both friends and colleagues feeling stuck in roles that didn’t suited their career path or they had not been able to attach any meaning or purpose to the time they spent at work. Amongst other factors this plays heavily into the low engagement levels in the UK.
According to Gallup's 2024 report, only 10% of UK employees are actively engaged in their work, making the UK one of the least engaged countries in Europe. This low engagement level costs the UK economy approximately £257 billion annually.
Finding meaning or motivation at work is a topic I have been very interested in for years and it doesn't always need to be meaning attached to important social impact it can just be meaning attached to great working relationships, autonomy and mastery with your work, this is certainly a topic I will write more on in the future and will play an interesting part in the chapters of the book I'm writing for managers.
We moved on and Roisin shared a really personal story of her mother's journey to accepting interdependence after her father's passing. Firstly I'm really grateful to Rosin for sharing this story and it reminded me of the privileged position it is to be a listener and to interview people who are prepared to share their wisdom.
After her dad passed away, Roisin's mum was suddenly on her own for the first time in a long while.
"Initially, there was that kind of her reluctance to rely on anybody and to believe that we were going to do these things," Roisin explained. Her mum just didn't want to be a burden on her kids, even though they all wanted to help.
Roisin said her mum was really scared at first, trying to maintain her independence.
"She had to face that reality of who she was, without her life partner and she had to be there for six children."
But over time, Roisin watched her mum learn to accept this new interdependence with her kids.
"She's just opened up a different chapter of her life really, that she didn't want. And she finds, she manages to find joy in life that she never thought was possible without my dad being around."
"Instead of seeing that and being resentful to that, because I think ultimately, if you were to ask her, she would still want my father to be around, but that's not a choice that you have. So what can you do? What can you do instead?"
Roisin was really inspired by how her mum navigated this challenge. "She brings a richness to all of our lives. That I didn't realize that that could be possible." The vulnerability and interdependence ended up enriching their whole family.
It's such a powerful example of how letting go of fierce independence and being willing to rely on others, can actually lead to more joy, connection and potential. It really made me think about how this powerful story and the learning could be applied to our own development and to our teams' progress together.
This narrative highlighted the importance of creating an environment where team members could feel a sense of team confidence that was shared when facing uncertain challenges or periods of change. As Roisin eloquently put it,
"You can be confident that you will succeed, but you don't know what that looks like. And having that vulnerability to go on that journey of finding out what that means."
One of the other takeaways from our discussion was the need to foster a challenge culture within the workplace. Roisin's experience in team sports had instilled in her a deep appreciation for the power of collective effort and the willingness to embrace failure as a stepping stone to growth.
"I never felt like I needed to be the best in the team," Roisin shared. "I felt I always needed to get the best out of the team and I never mind losing, because I had a history of losing personally, so it didn't bother me to lose."
This mindset of prioritising team success over individual accolades is crucial for building a culture of challenge and continuous improvement.
By modeling this mindset and passing it on to her team, Roisin has been able to create an environment where challenges are seen as opportunities, failure is accepted and the team's collective progress is celebrated.
One of the tactics Roisin in shared was encouraging a "Start Where You Are" mentality:
Roisin emphasised the importance of not trying to achieve the "perfect starting position," but rather just starting where the team is at and moving forward from there.
"Instead of trying to get the perfect starting position, you just start where you are and you have to move forward with it, because otherwise if you don't take action you're stuck," she said.
This mindset of embracing the current reality and challenges, rather than waiting for ideal conditions, helps foster a culture of problem-solving and continuous improvement.
By encouraging team members to embrace challenges, learn from failures and focus on collective growth, leaders can cultivate an environment where innovation, creativity and high performance thrive.
Closely linked to the challenge culture is the importance of clear communication. Roisin's insights on the issue of miscommunication and the need for clarity of intent were particularly insightful. This is another area I spend time on with my clients as it often reoccurs.
"Miscommunication can lead to conflicts and resentment," Roisin explained, "and the importance of having a common language to align with intent is important."
Roisin emphasised the importance of having a common language and understanding between managers and their teams, using the example of key performance indicators (KPIs).
Roisin explained that KPIs "means nothing to many colleagues. My key performance indicator is - “Have I got this person better?” Okay, but that means something to middle managers and that means something to senior managers and it has massive implications in terms of running a business in health care."
She went on to say that if the communication was that “KPIs are not being met” it has this knock on effect of people tuning out, because it sounds like management speak it means nothing to them."
However if the communication was phrased as “Our targets that we have set for helping our service users to get better are not being met, what can we do to address this?”
It creates a much more relevant and empowering communication than simply “Your KPIs are not being hit.”
I thought this was a really interesting perspective on how language can tune people out depending on where they sit in a business. The KPIs in this instance, were more aligned with the priorities of middle and senior managers in terms of running the business, but would not connect with the health workers who are in direct contact with the service users. This misalignment of language and priorities could lead to conflict and division between different hierarchies.
To overcome this, Roisin said she decided to "learn what my key performance indicators were in terms of hospital management" and ensure this was communicated to her team. In effect, creating a translation that allowed her to "get rid of those boring barriers" and have more meaningful conversations about the things that were valuable to her team.
This point did make me wonder how often we don't have common language that feels relevant throughout the business and can be in part a key Factor in inefficiency and guarded relationships and driving division between business layers.
Establishing a common language and understanding of priorities with their teams, rather than imposing metrics that may not resonate could be an interesting route to explore.
Throughout our discussion, the concept of Team Rituals emerged as a powerful tool driving behaviour change in teams. Roisin shared her experience with establishing a weekly meeting for knowledge sharing as a Team Ritual within her team, highlighting the benefits it brought.
"It gives us an opportunity to all feel part of the bigger organisation, as well as getting on with our own day to day," Roisin explained. "Otherwise we would never know of the interesting things that each of the team members has on their plate. For example any interesting documents or research papers that people might have read and they just want to talk about defining vocabulary. For instance last week, I came across a document about student placements and how to embrace diversity within student placement and shared it with my team."
By creating this consistent rhythm and space in this team ritual, Roisin's team was able to stay connected, share knowledge and foster a sense of belonging.
Rituals can take many forms, from regular check-ins and team-building exercises to more formal processes like retrospectives and knowledge-sharing sessions. The key is to design these Team Rituals in a way that aligns with the team's needs and the organisation's goals, while also promoting the values of challenge, open communication, allyship and personal accountability.
As Roisin's personal story demonstrated, the acceptance of interdependence and vulnerability is a crucial step in this process. When team members feel safe to be authentic and challenge the status quo, they can unlock new avenues for growth and innovation. This, in turn, can lead to increased job satisfaction, stronger interpersonal relationships and a greater sense of meaning and purpose in the workplace.
Drawing on the principles of positive psychology, we can see how these cultural elements can contribute to the overall well-being and performance of the team. Research has shown that a sense of belonging, psychological safety and opportunities for personal growth are key drivers of employee engagement and job satisfaction (Deci & Ryan, 2008; Edmondson, 1999). By prioritising these factors, leaders can create a workplace environment that not only delivers results but also nurtures the holistic development of their team members.
Psychological safety, in particular, has been identified as a critical factor in high-performing teams. As Amy Edmondson (1999) found, teams with a strong sense of psychological safety are more willing to take risks, experiment and learn from failures – all of which are essential for fostering a culture of challenge and innovation. By creating Team Rituals that promote open communication, vulnerability and mutual respect, leaders can cultivate this sense of psychological safety and empower their teams to thrive.
By embracing these Team Rituals and the underlying principles of psychological safety, self-determination and interdependence, leaders can cultivate a workplace culture that empowers their teams to thrive, innovate and deliver exceptional results.
References:
Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (2008). Self-determination theory: A macrotheory of human motivation, development and health. Canadian psychology/Psychologie canadienne, 49(3), 182.
Edmondson, A. (1999). Psychological safety and learning behavior in work teams. Administrative science quarterly, 44(2), 350-383.
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