Changing our culture
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Creating a Culture of Respect
MIT has prioritized creating a culture of respect, inclusion, and collaboration, and many offices and staff are immersed in that effort. Learn how you can contribute. - Better Culture Starts with Better Conversations
There are a few specific conversational behaviors that can make an outsized difference, and anyone — from the CEO to entry-level workers — can learn and practice these behaviors, significantly improving the quality of every interaction. (Center for Creative Leadership) - Getting Personal about Change
The need to shift mind-sets is the biggest block to successful transformations. The key lies in making the shift both individual and institutional — at the same time. (McKinsey and Company) - Leading Transformational Change (MIT Human Resources)
- The Keys to Successful Change
How do you break the “cycle of mutual dismissal” that so often bedevils change efforts? Combine agility with empathy. (Vantage Partners) - How Leaders Should Approach Today’s Hybrid Workforce
This article and related recorded webinar offers 5 steps on leading a hybrid team with adaptability to change and an openness to experimentation. (Center for Creative Leadership) - Leading Culture Change
People are more likely to get behind change when they're the ones driving it. In this LinkedIn Learning course, business psychologist Erin Shrimpton advises focusing on team experiences as the means for identifying what to change and engaging team members in driving change. She also offers a five-step plan for making culture change that sticks. (LinkedIn Learning) - Fostering a Culture of Belonging in the Hybrid Workplace
Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic and Katarina Berg explore the current challenges of belonging to a team and provide advice on how leaders can address this issue. (Harvard Business Review)
Leadership self-awareness and self-reflection
- The 7 Hallmarks of Good Leadership in the Pandemic
Stanford Graduate School of Business organizational behavior professors Robert I. Sutton and Hayagreeva “Huggy” Rao have spent years researching how exemplary leaders build on successful performance as organizations grow. (Fast Company) - Fostering Belonging as a Leader
How do you nurture a safe work environment that allows your workforce to unleash its true potential? In this course, learn how to go beyond diversity and inclusion to proactively help your employees feel like they belong. Sanyin Siang, CEO coach and professor reveals how to nurture your team and unleash its true potential, by building trust and a sense of belonging. (LinkedIn Learning) - From a Room Called Fear to a Room Called Hope: A Leadership Agenda for Troubled Times
Leaders can make a difference through personal accountability, caring, and “re-onboarding” of all their people. (McKinsey and Company) - Personal Accountability Self-Reflection Tool (MIT Human Resources)
- Revealing Leaders' Blind Spots (PwC)
- Tuning In Turning Outward: Cultivating Compassionate Leadership in a Crisis
Four qualities—awareness, vulnerability, empathy, and compassion—are critical for business leaders to care for people in crisis and set the stage for business recovery. (McKinsey and Company) - When Managing Through Ambiguity, Develop a Clear Vision
Making decisions today can feel overwhelming and complicated because you’re fighting two forces: uncertainty (you don’t have all the information you need) and ambiguity (the best outcome is a matter of interpretation). To fight uncertainty you can try to gather more information, but to make a tough call in the face of ambiguity, you need to start from your own vision of success. (Harvard Business Review) - HBR: Management Tip of the Day
Subscribe to get a quick tip each day. (Harvard Business Review)
1:1 manager and direct report relationships
- Active Listening to Build Connection and Trust (MIT Human Resources)
- Better Culture Starts with Better Conversations (Center for Creative Leadership)
- Building Direct Report Relationships (MIT Human Resources)
- Direct Report Communications (MIT Human Resources)
- Fostering Belonging using 1:1 Meetings
Gain insight on to how to better utilize your 1:1 meetings to foster a sense of belonging for your team. (LinkedIn Learning)
Inclusive, team-building tools
- 5 Practices to Make Your Hybrid Workplace Inclusive
As you craft your company’s hybrid work plans and policies, be aware of the inequities hybrid work can create or make worse. Designing with five practical dimensions of inclusion in mind is critical for creating an equitable organization. (Harvard Business Review) - A Manager's Guide to Team Norms
This guide is intended to help positional leaders create a welcoming environment for remote and returning staff, using a best practice that can help teams work better together in general. (Adapted from Center for Creative Leadership) - Disagreement Doesn't Have to be Divisive
Many of us try to avoid conversations with those who have a sharply different point of view, or we try to convince them that they’re wrong. Neither approach is very productive. See tactics for healthy disagreements. (Harvard Business Review) - Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Resources
MIT offers a variety of resources to enhance diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) across the Institute. (MIT Human Resources) - Engaging Staff at Virtual Team Meetings
Find tips and tricks for participating in and hosting small team meetings, with a focus on encouraging personal engagement. (MIT Human Resources) - Fostering Psychological Safety in Virtual Meetings
Meeting virtually can make it harder for employees to raise questions, concerns, and ideas without fear of personal repercussions. Learn ways to build psychological safety in virtual teams, leading to improved engagement, collegiality, productive dissent, and idea generation. (Harvard Business Review) - The Importance of Empathy in the Workplace
Empathy as a tool for effective leadership — why it matters, four ways to show it, and five ways organizations can support it. (Center for Creative Leadership) - Why Inclusive Leaders Are Good for Organizations, and How to Become One
Juliet Bourke & Andrea Espedido. Leaders who consciously practice inclusive leadership and actively develop their capability will see the results in the superior performance of their diverse teams. (Harvard Business Review)