Creating a Positive Work Environment

Module One: What Does a Positive Environment Look Like?

This Module Will Cover:

 Characteristics of a Positive Work Environment

Characteristics of a Positive Work Environment

Here are a few common characteristics of a positive work environment:

Transparent and Open Communication

In any organization communication is the most important single factor for success. This is also essential
in creating a positive work environment. Open communication begins by letting everyone in the
company know how the company is doing - good or bad! If things are going well, it can be a great
motivator to continue the great things that are happening. If things are not going so well, the employees
can rally and put that extra effort in knowing their efforts will make a difference.

There are a number of things that can be done to ensure good communications. They include:

Be honest and direct

 ensure leadership is approachable
Respect others
 be culturally sensitive
 be open to other viewpoints
 value honest feedback from all employees
 get to know them
Listen carefully to what others are saying and take an interest
 be willing to compromise
Spend time to understand the question then respond
 don’t make assumptions
 ask good questions to clarify others’ ideas and emotions
Avoid defensiveness
Be careful of your body language and speaking style
 be courteous
Be sure you have something interesting to say
 be consistent and clear in your communications
 include only important information
 express feelings in an open but non-threatening way

Use precise language (especially if you or the receiver is not using their first language)
Create opportunities for discussion about the organization’s philosophy, mission and values

Work-Life Balance

Just as what happens at work can affect your personal life, what happens at home can affect your work.
It is important to try to create a positive work-life balance. The balance will allow employees to be more
productive and happy at work knowing that their family, friends and spiritual life are all in order.
We all know ‘workaholics’ and while it may seem that the huge number of hours they are putting into
work is great for the company, but the neglect of other aspects of their life will catch up and can be
devastating for them and the company. Here are some things companies can do to promote work-life
balance:
 Provide education sessions on work-life balance
 Have managers model the behaviour
 Reward employees who maintain work-life balance
 Offer flexible work schedule - especially during less busy times
 Create job share and part-time opportunities
 Allow people to turn off their smartphones
 Offer unpaid leave of absence
 Allow employees to work from home for part of their week or when they would otherwise need
to take a day off (e.g. child sick or school cancellation)
 Have company events that include employees and their families
Training and Development-Focused

Companies that provide growth opportunities for employees are creating better employees.
Professional development opportunities can ensure that an employee keeps up on the latest
technology, learns to be a better supervisor, understands the new data management system,
understands the legal requirements for Occupational Health and Safety and so many other essential
work skills.

Personal development is sometimes ignored and considered to be something that an employee should
do on their own time because it is just for them. This can be short-sighted - something that allows an
employee to develop personally will definitely improve their work. When a company is looking to
balance work and life, it is important to consider these personal development opportunities. Here is a
list of some personal development courses that will create a better employee:
 Managing emotions
 Living ethically
 Stress, nutrition and diet
 Building confidence
 Public speaking

Recognition

Recognition is an important motivator and can go a long way to creating a great work environment. The
rewards do not have to be monetary - in fact, money is usually fairly low on the list of rewards when
employees are surveyed. It can be as simple as an acknowledgement from a senior manager that you
are doing a good job.

Company as Team

Humans began working in teams some 15,000 years ago, and it is one of the main reasons that the
species has survived to present day. Our organization is essentially one big team. We work best in teams
but only if everyone is working toward a common goal. There are a number of things that can help to
ensure that the team is working effectively. These include:
Engaged people
 It is important that everyone is there for the good of the team.
Collaboration
 Working together and understanding each other’s point of view is essential in teams.
Clear goals
 Employees want to know what the end goals are and that they can be part of getting there.
Tolerance and acceptance
 Teams need to be made up of a diverse group of people to ensure all angles and possibilities are
considered. It is important that team members embrace this.
Creative environment
 A fun, energetic environment can boost creativity and team effectiveness.
 Module Two: What Can I Do?

This Module Will Cover:

 As an Employee
 As a Leader

As an Employee

A positive work environment is important for the productivity of a company, but it is also important to
us personally. Our emotional and physical health can be improved by working in a positive work
environment. We should wake up each morning wanting to go to work - not trying to think of excuses to
not go. We want to be proud of where we work and enjoy telling others about where we work.
What can we do on a personal level to help create or maintain a positive work environment? Here are a
few ideas:
 Be kind, optimistic and approachable- build a level of mutual trust and respect with colleagues
 Always be on time, ready and willing to work - actively contributing
 Be organized (including your personal workspace) and use your time wisely
 Regularly seek constructive feedback from supervisors, co-workers, customers and act on it
 Be a team player- actively communicating with co-workers, fulfilling work requirements,
completing assignments, ready to take on tasks, supporting co-workers, giving credit to co-
workers
 Understand and promote diversity - be open to learning about co-workers, listen to the point of
view of others especially those with different experiences and background
 Seek to improve your skills by additional training
As a Leader

As a leader within a company, you have a responsibility to create and maintain a positive work
environment. Even if this is not a company-wide reality, you can seek to provide this type of
environment for your Department/ Division or those within your sphere of influence. Here are some
things that can help you in that effort:

Respect and trust

 Show employees, they are valued
 Allow employees to use their strengths most of the time rather than burden them with things
they are not good at
 Allow employees to do what you hired them to do - don’t micromanage
Be a coach
 Explain how daily tasks feed into the team and result in accomplishing team goals
 Help employees to reach their goals by pointing out what they are doing well and helping to
improve other aspects of their work
Be flexible
 Try to work with the employee’s schedule whenever possible. If they need to be doing
something else for the morning, and it doesn’t affect their deadlines, and they have a history of
always making deadlines, just go with it.
Team build
 Do non-work things with your team. A morning of go-cart racing, providing a pizza lunch, having
a monthly birthday cake for employees are only a few of the team building activities you can do.
Try to do this monthly or quarterly. Once a year won’t have the same effect.
Show your gratefulness
 When employees are working hard and getting things done, a little gesture of gratitude can help.
A gift card can go a long way to make someone feel appreciated and it is not that expensive.
Provide for physical needs
 Personal space, quality of lighting, furniture and even the colour of the walls or cubicle can make
a difference in the employee’s outlook. Giving the employee input into what their workspace
looks like (even if it’s to pick out items from a list of acceptable furnishings, colours, etc.) can go
a long way to creating a positive physical workspace and happy employee.
Model the behaviour you want to see
 Maintain professionalism, be clear about your expectations, keep employee issues private and
confidential, don’t tolerate infighting and treat all employees the same.
 Module Three: Team Player

This Module Will Cover:

 Team Member Roles and Responsibilities

Team Member Roles and Responsibilities

Teams are usually selected or authorized by the Quality Council. A team normally consists of Team
Leader, Facilitator, Recorder, Timekeeper and Members. Each and every member have their own
responsibilities. They play their role in the welfare of the team. Some of the roles and responsibilities of
team members are briefly explained below.

1. Role and Responsibilities of a Team leader

A team leader is selected by the quality council, sponsor or the team itself.

 Team leader ensures the smooth and effective operations of the team.
 S/He ensures that all members participate during the meetings and he prevents members from
dominating the proceedings unnecessarily.
 S/He serves as a mediator between the team and the Quality Council.
 S/He implements the changes recommended by the team.
 S/He prepares the agenda of all meetings and ensures necessary resources are available for the
meeting.
 Team leader ensures that team decisions are taken by consensus rather than unilaterally.

2. Role and Responsibilities of Facilitator

The facilitator is not a member of the team. Yet his role in the team is indispensable.

 The facilitator supports the leader for facilitating the team during the initial stages of the team.
 S/He focuses on team process.
 S/He acts as a resource to the team
 S/He provides feedback to the team concerning the effectiveness of the team process.
3. Role and Responsibilities of Team Recorder
 Team recorder is selected by the team leader or by the team and maybe rotated on a periodic
basis.
 S/He documents the main ideas of the team’s discussion.
 S/He presents the documents for the team to review during the meeting and distribute them as
‘minutes of the meeting ‘afterwards.
 S/He participates as a team member.

4. Role and Responsibilities of Timekeeper

 Timekeeper is selected by the leader or by the team and maybe rotated on a periodic basis.
 S/He monitors the time to maintain the schedule as per agenda.
 S/He participates as a team member.

5. Role and Responsibilities of the Individual Member

 A team member is selected by the leader, sponsor, or quality council (or) is a member of a
natural work team.
 S/He should actively, participate in meetings and shares knowledge, expertise, ideas and
information.
 S/He should respect others’ contribution.
 S/He should listen carefully and ask questions.
 S/He should be enthusiastic.
 S/He should work for consensus on decisions.
 S/He should be committed to team objectives.
 S/He should carry out assignments between meetings such as collecting data, observing
processes, charting data and writing reports.
 Module Four A: Effective Workplace Relationships

This Module Will Cover:

 Teams
 Working Cooperatively
 Managing Conflict
 Preventing Problems

Teams

In the workplace, the actions of each individual affect the whole company. This is why it is very
important to be a good team member.

There are a number of guidelines to be effective team members that should be followed.

Listen and share information: Contribute your ideas and solutions, don’t sit waiting for someone to
come up with the idea- they may not

Recognize and respect differences in others: Diversity should be welcome. If everyone thought exactly
the same, you could just assign one person to do the task, and they would do it exactly the same as
everyone else. This doesn’t work. The team needs to hear from everyone, and the ideas and
contributions of everyone should be valued

Ask questions: Unless you understand what’s going on, you can’t contribute effectively. Realize that if
you don’t understand something, there are probably more on the team that don’t either.

Utilize constructive feedback: Give and receive suggestions for improvement in a positive environment.

Do your work: If you have been given a task within the team, do it. You are responsible for your tasks
just as other team members are responsible for theirs.

Have fun: Everything is done better if you want to do it.

Motivating Your Team

While many think that money, fear and pain are the most effective motivators for success in team
research proves otherwise. The seven triggers for motivation are:

 Acceptance - simply having ideas listened to

 Security - not job security as much as secure in the fact that they can do the task
 Power - decision-making authority
 Sense of belonging - ideas are not just listened to but seriously considered and perhaps
implemented
 Structure - everyone likes to know where they fit in
 Sense of accomplishment - from co-workers and supervisors
 Recognition - from outside of the team and organization
Working Cooperatively

Cooperatively working is an important aspect of successful companies. Cooperativity can increase

energy, creativity and efficiency by allowing individuals to use their complete range of skills and
knowledge in their everyday work. Additionally, cooperative work gives everyone in the company a
sense of shared purpose and results in higher levels of morale, job satisfaction, commitment to the
company, trust and performance and lower levels of absenteeism, and tardiness.

And the best thing about cooperativity is that it can be learned - you don’t have to be born with the skill!

How do you work cooperatively? First and foremost, it means showing respect for the rights of co-
workers in working toward a common productive objective.
How is it, manifested? Some of the ways that cooperativity is seen are through:

 Voluntary engagement in open communication - listening carefully to what others say, respond
appropriately to others.
 Exhibiting an awareness of others’ feelings, beliefs and opinions.
 Encourage others to contribute and respond understandingly to contributions from others
 Keeping arguments and disagreements to a minimum
 Proactively trying to prevent problems before they occur
 Adapt what you say to suit different situations
Managing Conflict

Defining Conflict

Conflict is a very normal part of healthy relationships. It’s not possible for everyone to agree about
everything all the time, and to do so can squash creativity and innovation. What is important, then, is to
learn how to manage disagreements so that they do not harm relationships. By learning skills to manage
conflict, you can approach disagreements with confidence that keeps your personal and professional
relationships strong.

Another way to look at dealing with people is to realize that we need to have conversations about
accountability. If you consider that holding people accountable (i.e., they are taking responsibility for
their actions and results) is a part of your role as a supervisor, or at home as a spouse or parent, then
these conversations are a part of life. Holding people accountable may or may not become a
confrontation, but it is necessary nonetheless. If we avoid these sometimes difficult conversations
because we do not like them, consider for a moment whether or not you are valuing that person as a
contributor at work or home. If you value them, you are more likely to have these conversations
because of your respect for the other individual. We also have to have these conversations with people
we do not like for the same reasons.

When you are dealing with difficult people whom you also do not like (we all have people who can rub
us the wrong way!), we have an important tip for you before you enter that important conversation.
Find something that you like about that person, and you will be able to frame the conversation
positively. It doesn’t matter what the positive attribute is: they offer good insight in meetings, they are
always on time, they meet deadlines, they bring great lunches; just find SOMETHING that you can
connect to positively. We guarantee that your conversation will be less likely to get off track and become
difficult.

If you consider the conflicting need for safety versus the desire to challenge and take risks (a frequent
conflict between young children and their parents), the conflict becomes readily apparent. The child
wants to explore, and so the need to move as quickly as possible on stairs becomes their focus. The
parent is responsible for the child’s safety, so they limit the child’s access to the staircase. This limited
access becomes the conflict, as the child wants to explore, and the parent wants to avoid bruises and
broken bones.
Whether at home or in the workplace, we have to consider that both parties’ needs play an important
role in the success of the relationship. Each side deserves respect and consideration. A lack of
understanding can contribute to arguments, low productivity, and continued disputes. This, in turn, can
lead to a total breakdown of important relationships.

When you acknowledge the legitimacy of conflict and are willing to examine issues in a cooperative
environment, you can open the door to creative problem solving, more cohesive teams, and improved
relationships. Developing a method to cope and work through conflict empowers people to take control
of the outcomes and to contribute strongly to effective teams.

What is Conflict?

 A conflict is more than just a disagreement. Conflict comes with a threat, and whether the
threat is real or not, it must be dealt with in order for the threatened party to be able to move
beyond the situation.
 Conflicts become more serious when they are ignored. Since conflicts involve a perceived threat
to our own well-being, they stay with us and stay with us and often become greater in
magnitude until we resolve them.
 Perception colours, our reactions and triggers emotions. This makes it difficult for us to remain
objective, even when we look at the facts. Our perception is influenced by our life experiences,
values, and beliefs.
 Conflicts trigger our emotional hot buttons. We aren’t always at our best when working through
conflict because our emotions can interfere with our ability to remain objective and manage
things rationally. Learning how to manage conflict during emotionally stable periods helps us to
manage conflict more effectively.
 Conflict brings growth. Although we aren’t often able to acknowledge it in the heart of things,
when we resolve conflict in our relationships, we are also building trust. In relationships with
high levels of trust, we feel more secure, knowing that our relationship will survive, and
ultimately get even stronger.
Preventing Problems

The Importance of Empathy

We can do a lot to keep problems from happening in the first place. If you develop your empathizing
skills, you can put yourself in the other person’s shoes even though you do not have to agree with them.
If you are practising being empathetic (and we recommend that you do), you should avoid phrases like,
“I agree” or, “Yes, that’s true.” Don’t reinforce a concern, either. You can simply express your empathy
by rephrasing the key topic of the person’s statement.

Some phrases you might use include:

 "I hear…”
 "I understand…"
 "I think you're saying…"

The concept of rephrasing before answering gives you:

 A chance to empathize with the concerns
 An opportunity to show the person that you understand the concern
 A moment to think of an appropriate response

It’s also important to check to be sure the individual is satisfied with your level of understanding or your
explanation. Your ability to empathize will play an important role in your overall communication skills
and your ability to foster a positive and productive environment.
Dangerous Misconceptions

Although we believe that we are clear when we speak, we’re not always as efficient as we think. Here
are some important misconceptions for you to keep in mind when you are having a conversation:

 People always pay attention when you are speaking to them.

 When people say they are paying attention, they really are.
 When someone says "I know", they really do.
 Saying something over and over will ensure that your listener understands.
 Saying something over and over, slowly or loudly, will be even more effective.
 Module Four B: Effective Workplace Relationships

This Module Will Cover:

 Dealing with Problems
 Meeting Management

Dealing with Problems

Sometimes we are so busy with other things that we don’t see (or don’t want to see) a problem that is
growing. When it explodes, it can catch us broadside. Has that ever happened to you? What do you do?

Let’s take a look at some suggestions and see if we can make sense of them.

 Assess the situation

 Meet the difficult behaviour head-on
 Stay calm and objective
 Be up-front
 Make it a two-way conversation
 Put yourself in their place
 Be flexible
 Be tolerant
Meeting Management

An all too common problem in organizations today is meeting paralysis! Have you ever gone to a
meeting realizing that you have no progress on a task because you’ve just gone from meeting to
meeting for three straight days? Unfortunately, you are not alone. But what can be done?
Here are a few things you can do to make a meeting more productive and have them take up less of
your day.

Limit the duration of your meeting

 Most meetings can be finished in 60 minutes or less (or your scope is too big!).
 Be sure to start and finish on time - people will get to know this and realize they won’t be stuck
in the meeting all morning or all day.
Invite decision-makers
 Many meetings invite too many people. If there are people who are just there to listen, consider
sending meeting minutes instead.
Remember Diversity
 If you want to have a great meeting, you need to have people who can provide a variety of
perspectives so that it doesn’t just become a mutual admiration society.
Have a preset agenda and keep to it
 You’ve only got an hour, but invariably someone will come up with a question that might set you
off on a 45-minute tangent. Use a flipchart ‘parking lot’. You can add these items to your next
meeting or answer outside of the meeting.
Seek solutions
 Participants in the meeting should be aware that they are there to provide solutions, not
problems.
 They should do their research ahead of time and be ready for the meeting.
 If the material was sent out previously, they should have read and understood it. Before the
meeting is the time for getting clarification- not during the meeting.
Create minutes that are action-oriented
 Minutes should not regurgitate everything that was said during the meeting. It should report:
Decisions, Responsibilities and Deadlines
Final Verdict

Everyone has a responsibility to create and maintain a positive work environment. Each person needs to
ensure that their behaviours are not disrespectful and do not erode the positive work culture. This
Creating a Positive Work Environment course will provide you with a solid understanding of the positive
environment, role of employee and leader, how to be a team player, effective workplace relationships,
and so on. Not all of us have had the opportunity to work in a truly positive work environment. A
positive work environment is important for the productivity of a company, but it is also important to us
personally.

Our emotional and physical health can be improved by working in a positive work environment. We
should wake up each morning wanting to go to work - not trying to think of excuses to not go. We want
to be proud of where we work and enjoy telling others about where we work. As an employee or a
leader within a company, you have a responsibility to create and maintain a positive work environment.

Everyone has a responsibility to create and maintain a positive work environment. Even if this is not a
company-wide reality, you can seek to provide this type of environment for your department/ division
or those within your sphere of influence. This one-day course will give you tools to be able to create the
type of company environment that you crave through building and nurturing effective workplace
relationships.

Throughout this Creating a Positive Work Environment course, you will learn to recognize what a
positive workplace looks like, know and understand the key elements necessary to create and maintain
a positive work environment. This course will also help you understand as an employee what you can to
do personally to create and maintain a positive work environment as well as understand as a leader the
responsibility you have to create and maintain a positive work environment. The course is designed to
aid you to discover what type of team player you are and how that relates to your functioning in the
team and know the importance of effective workplace relationships in creating and maintaining a
positive work environment. By this course, you will know and understand the importance of working as
a team and guidelines to good teamwork, discover your personal strengths and weaknesses in working
cooperatively, discover your preference for dealing with workplace conflict, learn and practice various
methods to deal with workplace problems, learn some of the common meeting problems to how to
make your meetings more positive and effective. Overall, this course will give you the opportunity to
pursue a wide range of knowledge on creating a positive work environment or a scope to pursue more
courses at a higher level.