Why and how to create a positive workplace culture - Ep61

Shelter Success Simplified

GUEST: Karen Green is executive director at Cat Adoption Team, the Pacific Northwest’s largest nonprofit, feline-only animal shelter. Before that, she was senior director at the Alliance for Contraception in Cats & Dogs and assistant director of the No More Homeless Pets program at Best Friends Animal Society.

MAIN QUESTION: How can animal organizations build a healthy workplace culture, which is so important in a competitive job market?

TAKEAWAYS:

• Open two-way communication is key to having a strong, positive organizational structure. If there’s a program or policy that isn’t working, you need to know – so staff needs to have a way to share such information with people who can fix the problem.
• Ask for feedback and make it safe for people to give feedback by demonstrating your trustworthiness.
• Implement suggestions when they make sense.
• If you don’t plan to implement someone’s ideas or suggestions, they are more likely to accept your decision if they feel that their concerns were heard. Repeat back what the person said to make sure you understood before explaining your own position.
• Create an environment where people can have a good work-life balance through reasonable expectations and work hours. When people are at work, they should be working and when off, they should be encouraged to care for the other parts of their lives.
• Examine staffing levels and processes to support this.
• Gently encourage people who check in when off work by saying something like, “Aren’t you supposed to be on vacation?”
• Sometimes there will be times you just need to put in extra hours, perhaps for a budget deadline, a special event, or a large rescue situation. But make these the exception, not the rule, so that overwork does not create burnout.
• Address conflicts and issues when they come up. Little problems become big problems over time.

LINKS:

• Cat Adoption Team (website)
• Cat Adoption Team's workplace culture agreement (example)
• "The Happy, Healthy Nonprofit: Strategies for Impact without Burnout" by Beth Kanter and Aliza Sherman (book)
• "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" by Steven R. Covey (book)
• "Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What Matters Most" by Douglas Stone (book)
• "Crucial Conversations Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High, Second Edition" by Kerry Patterson (book)
• "Radical Candor: Be a Kick-Ass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity" by Kim Scott (book)
• Leadership recommendation: "How to run more effective daily standup meetings" (article)