Workplace Environment Day: working on ONE THING for a positive climate.

Monday was World Environment Day. I wish we didn't need one. And while there is much to celebrate, the task can feel overwhelming and hopeless. There is so much to do.

It's the same in many of our workplace environments.

We are dealing with the aftereffects of a pandemic and coming to terms with different ways of working together. An ever-increasing pace of change, greater complexity, labour shortages, convoluted systems and processes, and a higher demand for services are placing our people under stress.

We are far from our best when we are overwhelmed, frustrated and de-energised. Our thinking, decision-making, communication, and behaviours are compromised, making our work environment more toxic.

So how do we address our workplace climate issues to ensure positive change and keep our people and our business healthy?

95% of my assets drive out the gate every evening. It is my job to maintain a work environment that keeps those people coming back every morning.

Jim Goodnight CEO, SAS

We look for our best researchers, translation scientists and experts.

The good news is that there is so much information on ways to support our people and our businesses. A great deal of time and money is spent on understanding the workplace and what makes it successful. We can learn from universities, savvy and compassionate business leaders, and highly respected practitioners and consultants. We are not devoid of ideas.

We seek out our Greta Thunbergs.

We look for unexpected, diverse, passionate voices to help agitate and motivate us. These are often overlooked in the frontline of your organisations and with your clients. Support them to become even better problem finders and solvers to grow the health of the business.

We focus on where we can have the greatest impact.

We can't work on everything at once, so do ONE THING that will have a visible and lasting impact. Maybe it's a significant systemic change, or perhaps it's something smaller and more local. Then, engage your scientists, activists, and leaders to support the success of the change.

But do your ONE THING deep - by working on something meaningful to people, doing it over time to embed it well, doing it in different ways to accommodate our learning and thinking styles, and engaging your people early and often. Why? Because the clarity of a ONE THING endeavour builds confidence in positive change and creates a momentum of its own that makes the next and the next ONE THING easier.