Several months ago a group of my colleagues and I got together to have a discussion on why, day after day, we continue to see headlines like the ones listed above.

But then we see a glimmer of hope:

Comcast announces it wants to stop being the worst company.

Well good for you, Comcast!! What’s your plan? You see, that’s the trouble. When hiring get’s tight and turnover goes up, organizations look around and wonder, “hmmm, perhaps we should fix something.” BUT WHAT IS BROKEN???

It was with this in mind that The SMART Workplace (TSW) was created. All of us on the team have had the luxury of stepping away from the corporate world and leading our own companies. We can tell you, life is much better on the outside. But it doesn’t have to be reserved for business owners. We all know there are amazing companies out there: Zappos, Facebook, Google, Microsoft and hundreds of other organizations that have taken the time to think their cultures through.

As a team, we constructed six competencies that every successful organization must have to be a SMART Workplace:

• TSW is driven by their mission and vision which provide focus, purpose and meaning for everyone in the organization
• TSW anticipates the future and designs a strategy to respond, not react
• TSW develops leaders, not executives, and recruits networks, not individuals
• TSW builds collaborative, mobile and dynamic teams
• TSW embeds innovation into its culture to build engagement, inclusion and results
• TSW understands collaborative technology and builds networked systems for collaboration, communication and performance metrics around a network of teams

Today, I am going to focus on the first competency, being driven by mission and vision.

I attended a great workshop given by Ryan Estis, an amazing speaker. During his session he held up a $20 dollar bill and announced, “This is yours if you can give me your company’s mission statement verbatim.”  Out of 150 attendees, two hands went up. Whoops!

The question that came to my mind when I saw this was, “Why the hell are you still there?” But I already knew the possible answers:

• For the paycheck
• I like the people, or
• (for the two that raised their hands) Because I believe I am contributing to something important. I agree with the mission, and my hard work serves a purpose.

So… How do you get your organization to the third bullet? That’s where The SMART Workplace can help.

• Start by taking our FREE Organizational Assessment.
• Check out our knowledge resources while you’re on our site.
• And join us for open and transparent Happy Hour Chats, facilitated online Luncheon Discussions and learning webinars.

For more information go to The SMART Workplace and sign up to join our SMART community. If you want things to change, you have to do something different.   AND you have to go first!!

By Kathy Kacher, the SMART Workplace