You see team members afraid to voice their concerns; a build-up of rules and processes that are more barrier than benefit, communication is running top-down only, and silos have become par for the course.  What you see now is a toxic culture in dire need of positive change.

We all know the impact of toxic cultures on employees. Apathy may be present in as much as 67 percent of workers (Gallup 2017 State of the Global Workforce Poll). Ultimately work performance is affected with employees jumping ship and pessimism runs rampant. To know you are in a toxic environment, is to observe any of the following scenarios as one or parts of the whole.

Employees that are afraid will not speak up. A new culture of possible retaliation results in a holding back of both positive and constructive feedback. Sharing ideas and voicing your opinion are deemed harmful and may lead to transfer, denied promotions, up to and including dismissal (though the framing of the termination will note a legitimate cause, i.e. a lack of performance issue). Harassment is usually top of the list of harmful behaviors now thriving at the place of work. There will be little, if any at all, communication to senior management related to the abandonment of respect toward, race, religion, sexual orientation, etc. In effect, the climate is now a desert, void of freedom of speech and empowerment.

Over time, employees begin to feel a struggle to accomplish their mandates, as new policies are implemented with hidden agendas to satisfy egos and gain political control, or without proper forethought or impact study, all the while stifling creativity and objectivity to the point frustrated employees leave or their determination to refuse the change is broken.

With a now tightly controlled environment, favoritism and an unevenness on who is allowed to ignore the newly created policies. Policies are now used as concrete determinations of actions rather than used as a guideline that nuances and considerations may deem the policy unfair in a particular case.

This culture may display an authority for the sake of authority org chart. Toxic cultures will affect managers who hold authority on an org chart only, while the power actually resides elsewhere.

To every great organization, communication is the one keystone that ties everything together. When we examine toxic cultures, the top-down only communication stream is further filtered as information is shared on a need to know basis. Additionally, information becomes currency as employees hoard knowledge, certain that if it is shared, their perceived value drops rapidly. This in turn leads to the fear of loss of power or termination.

Decisions will be made at the executive level with the responsibility and accountability given to the line managers and employees. Input from the employees is rarely solicited leaving the staff struggling to own it and give one hundred percent to something they see as an ambiguous task without purpose. A quiet work to rule unfolds as employees do their respective tasks only within normal working hours and will not go the extra mile unless it is mandated.

Lastly on our breakdown of toxic culture indicators, you will see silos emerge. A silo can be one person holding onto information, refusing to share the knowledge for the betterment of the department or organization. This is as mentioned above, used to hold onto a sense of power or used as currency in order to barter for a more stable footing in the current role or for a potential promotion. Another type of silo involves an area or department that will keep the knowledge within the team, keeping each other sheltered and emboldened to any push back from another area or department. This inevitably causes a disconnect from the business as a whole and employees are left limited in their ability to act as advocates for the company. Employee numbers will increase as department managers will pad their areas and duplicate other areas work, in an effort to gain power as a too big to fail department.

A toxic culture is temporary, given that the proper leaders are in place to effect change. There is hope and a few actions that can be taken to bring the normalness back.

The key takeaway is that to overcome a toxic culture; Plan with Timing, Critical Mass, Communication and Celebrating Wins, all play pivotal roles.

• Plan with Timing
  • This is your one opportunity to build a new culture of transparency, open communication and respect. Prior to implementation, the plan must include the purpose of why your employees arrive to work daily. It must include voices that haven’t been heard and a forum or opportunity for those voices to be shared openly. Your plan will include stages of implementation to keep the wave riding high until most are on board permanently.
  • Your plan must work within the 90-day rule. People will revert to old habits quickly beyond this point.
• Critical Mass
  • It is not always the majority of employees needed to affect change. Sometimes, it is the majority of key personnel needed to achieve success. It is commonly understood that if you can bring the influencers on board to a new culture, they will advocate on your behalf when it is needed privately amongst, for example, a line employee only meeting.
  • Achieving critical mass can also be done in small groups, but the preference is to have as many show up as possible on one room (via satellite or video call etc). It is an incredibly powerful moment when your employees walk away knowing change has already begun.
  • Either way, you want to build momentum here. Hosting an open forum, town hall where the employees are given the mike to ask anything of the leaders or stakeholders.
• Communication
  • Your town hall or open forum meeting is your key motivation tool to affect change.
  • Prior to this meeting, it is important to have all executives delivering the same message during and immediately following the event. One voice is the only voice that will work. Leaders need to know this message without having to rely on a presentation or charts to assist. The message will identify the problem, what the solution will be, how the solution will be implemented and what the end result looks like.
  • During the event and shortly after, there will be a point where, to coin a phrase, the rubber hits the road. Your leaders need to deliver less of a fluffy message and back it up more with tangible actions. In other words, it is less of “We will be transparent.” and more of “We will meet together as a department on Tuesday to review the budget and get input from all for next year.”
• Celebrating wins
  • Seems simple enough on the outside, but to celebrate, we must turn to our employees and operations to identify the quick wins first with larger wins following later.
  • Still keeping within the 90-day rule (preferably the end of the first week or immediately at the start of week 2), have, for example, a department or small group of employees identified as owning the change by accomplishing goals set or for efforts over and above in assisting with the change.
  • You can also celebrate the new start with a company event. Whatever the reason, it is important here to show your employees that the new purpose to arrive at work, is to give your best and that their efforts are valued and respected.
  • Celebrating wins will only work if consistency is king in your organization. It is not enough to have annual events or events when major targets are achieved. Celebrating wins, is also everything from a Friday pot luck lunch for one team to a departmental treat (e.g. an ice cream fridge during summer months) to a simple heartfelt thank you showing sincerity.

Flexibility, fun, humility, honesty, having a presence and showing appreciation all counter any culture trying to keep the status quo in an effort to maintain a temporary power that will eventually be consumed by positive change. Inspired leaders and an empowered culture will always thrive. Toxic cultures can be changed.