As a society, we tend to have an awkward relationship with the conventions and standard practices expected of us. There are ways of being, ways to do things – and more commonly, ways not to do things. This limits creativity and pushes us to what’s known, rather than exploring what isn’t known. To different degrees, the same can be said of how most people approach the working world. While there certainly have been innovations in working culture of the past 15 years, only a handful of companies have been responsible; the rest have been followers. But as a business owner, the only rules you have to follow are the ones set out by the legislature – how your business is up to you. So
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Thinking Outside of the Box
Take a look around your workspace. The walls, the doors, the everything: what does it say about your company? Is the decor purely functional, or is about something more than just the bottom line? You’re entirely free to create whatever workspace you want to have. You just need to let your mind think about it a little bit more than it probably did in the first place. If you want, you could throw out all the traditional chairs and desks and kit the place out with standing desks and bean bags. You’re not limited by anything other than your own mind!
Malleable Employees
People – and thus employees – are much more malleable than we generally give them credit for. If a person seems despondent, we don’t have to take for granted that that is how they are; they’re like that for a reason, so can they be changed? It’s not comfortable to talk with an employee, but sometimes it has to be done – Jim Tsokanos has advice on how to approach it; find it at jimtsokanos.wordpress.com/about/. In time, you can foster a really positive spirit in the workplace, but it won’t just happen – you’ll need to dedicate time to making it so!
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Staying Fresh
A workplace, no matter how many fun concepts you have in their, will always suffer from stagnation every now and again. That’s why it’s your job to keep things fresh. Introduce new ideas, new ways of having fun, or surprise your employees with the occasional treat. These things go a long way to make staff feel valued, which is an important factor in employee retention and productivity but also just helps to keep things moving forward. A healthy workplace is a healthy company, don’t forget!
Policies
You dictate the rules of your business, but most people don’t fully exercise this freedom. Instead, they fit in with the rest of the business world. But if you have utter confidence in what you’re doing, then you’re free to push the boat out and put other businesses on the backfoot with what you’re trying to achieve. If you have a policy that you thoroughly believe in, but which might send a few shockwaves through your business…then it’s up to you to bring the policy to fruition.
