04

The Creative Ecosystem. Second Factor: the Work Climate

1. Aspects of the Work Climate

Work climate is a concept usually found in management literature. The basic definition is attributed to Litwin and Stringer (1968). According to them, it concerns the measurable elements of work environment that have an effect on commitment, motivation and behaviour.

So what are these elements, and how do they affect us? How can we measure them? How do they influence your innovative behaviour, and are there gender differences? What can you do if you find that your own climate is unsatisfactory?

There are a large number of factors that make up the work climate of an organization, and in order to understand them and manage them, it is very useful to divide them into four aspects: the physical space, the emotional aspects, the ethical and moral framework, and the spiritual approach.

Figure 4.1 The Aspects of the Work Climate

The influence of the physical space is clear and has led to ergonomics (the discipline that studies the phenomenon) which has become an abundant source of literature. A basic requirement of a good environment is adequate space, good lighting and suitable climate control. Obviously ventilation, cleanliness and hygiene conditions need to be monitored and managed. It is also important that efforts be made to reduce or preferably eliminate distracting factors such as noise. This is obvious to everybody, but it still has to be monitored. In fact, it is probably worth taking a closer look at noise as an example.

Workers who are continually exposed to high frequencies (in the region of 4,000 Hz) will lose auditory sensitivity in this area of the hearing spectrum through damage that over time expands into the region that includes the human voice. The frequency of this pathology, known as occupational deafness or hypoacusis, is so great that each year it occupies one of the top spots in the lists of occupational diseases. It is generated as the result of a progressive degeneration of the ciliated cells in Corti’s organ (in the inner ear). It often starts without the victim being aware of it, and is made worse by virtue of the fact that it is degenerative and there is no treatment for it. In addition, it frequently develops along with the constriction of the blood vessels, an increase in heart and breathing rates, and a reduction in the activity of the digestive and cerebral organs.

You might think that this is an extreme case, not the sort of thing that office workers need to concern themselves with, yet nothing could be further from the truth. How often do you fail to notice the deafening sound of the building’s air conditioners until they are turned off? How many of you have worked in noisy environments packed with endless chatter and the sound of telephones – which you’ve adapted to such that you don’t even hear them? The effect of these situations can lead to tiredness, headaches and loss of sleep. Hypoacusis is just one example from a long list of occupational pathologies published by the International Labour Organization (ILO). Many, in fact most, are the result of economic problems, aggravated by the arrival of new technologies. They now include new afflictions such as “mouse curse” (carpal tunnel syndrome), a lesion caused by the compression and inflammation of the wrist nerve as a result of extreme postures during prolonged periods of intense and repetitive work.

In other words, a good physical environment must be in place not just to pass conventional work and safety audits, but to ensure that staff are able to contribute their full potential. The opposite case could prove very expensive.

Even so, good health as far as the workplace is concerned means more than just physical matters. The World Health Organization (WHO) states the following in its articles: “Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, and not merely the absence of infections or diseases”[1]. This means that the work climate must also include positive emotional, ethical and spiritual factors.

Goleman (1996) stated that “it is impossible to separate skills from the social framework which supports them”. In his opinion technical capabilities and managerial skills are essential to the competitiveness of a business, but they are not a differentiating factor. He insisted that what mattered was for organizations to be able to manage emotional well-being. However, he also pointed out that this was not an easy factor to monitor, since people respond emotionally in different ways to identical stimuli.

The ethical and moral framework is also an essential part of the work climate. It exercises a powerful influence on commitment and motivation. When people are uncomfortable in a moral framework, sooner or later they end up demotivated. Many suffer burn-out syndrome, a phenomenon recognized by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, (DSM, published by the American Psychiatric Association) as one of the problems associated with handling life’s problems. Curiously, this also turns out to be an element that includes its own Darwinian natural selection process, since professionals with dubious moral constitutions do not remain in companies with strong ethics (and vice versa). In other words, the famous laws of attraction and repulsion apply.

Before moving on to the following aspect, it must be stressed that an important part of a company’s ethics includes the fact that employees should receive fair pay. No business can expect its staff to give 100 per cent if they don’t receive a fair reward in return. They might give 100 per cent in the short term, if no alternative is available, but it will not be sustainable. If a company’s treatment of their staff is not ethical, sooner or later they will pay for it. As indeed they should.

I want to add a comment about spirituality, an element which, despite what many think, is not necessarily connected with religion. Robbins (2005) expressed this very clearly when he said that “organizations which promote a spiritual culture accept the fact that people have a mind and a spirit, that they seek a meaning and a purpose in their work, and that they wish to deal with other human beings, and be a part of a community”. The author stated that spirituality has a positive effect on creativity, commitment and work satisfaction. In other words, people who think that the world of business and that of the spirit have nothing to do with each other are actually wrong, and this could turn out to be a very expensive mistake.

2. Innova 3DX for the Work Climate

The work climate alone is normally calculated as being responsible for between 5 – 10 per cent of innovative behaviour within both genders.

The way it works is very simple. If your office has poor lighting, if you aren’t happy in your work, if you’re surrounded by a questionable ethical framework, if you aren’t respected … will you try to be innovative? Why should you? Let someone else do it.

Its effect on the innovation process does not end there. Just as in the case of corporate culture, the work climate exercises an obvious influence on our potential and passion for innovation. For example, do you feel optimistic if your office is plunged in lighting gloom, and your daily routine simply depresses you?

This means that a good work climate is an essential condition if the innovative machinery is to work at top yield level. Organizations that intend to optimise their managerial acumen must be sure to establish a good work environment, and manage it efficiently so that it continues to act as a catalyst.

Figure 4.2 Work Climate Test

Instructions: score your opinion from 0 – 10, with 0 as the lowest score and 10 as the highest. You may use decimals if you need.

Aspect 1. Physical space
1.	The conditions or the physical space I work in are good.	— — , —
2.	Lighting is adequate.	— — , —
3.	The temperature is suitable.	— — , —
4.	The noise level is low.	— — , —
5.	I am able to concentrate.	— — , —
Average score		— — , —
Aspect 2. Emotions
1.	I like my job.	— — , —
2.	I like the company I work for.	— — , —
3.	I’m happy in my work	— — , —
4.	I don’t feel scared in my environment.	— — , —
5.	Fear does not exist in the environment.	— — , —
Average score		— — , —
Aspect 3. Ethics and morality
1.	Management is prepared to acknowledge its mistakes.	— — , —
2.	Managers say what they think.	— — , —
3.	The company recognizes work well done.	— — , —
4.	The company rewards effort.	— — , —
5.	The company rewards success.	— — , —
Average score		— — , —
Aspect 4. Spirituality
1.	I feel respected.	— — , —
2.	I understand the value of my work.	— — , —
3.	I understand that it is important for my work to be well done.	— — , —
4.	I am acknowledged for my work.	— — , —
5.	I feel part of the company.	— — , —
Average score		— — , —

Result: from 0 – 3.5 (inclusive) very low, from 3.5 – 5 (inclusive) low, from 5 – 6.5 (inclusive) adequate, from 6.5 – 10 (inclusive) very high.

Where, then, is the organization work climate? To answer, insert the averages obtained in the measurement test into the following table.

Figure 4.3 Work Climate Aspects Table

Space	Emotional	Ethical	Spiritual

Companies for which all aspects are satisfactory and in a stable state will have a “healthy climate”. In these companies the work atmosphere supports innovation and allows it to develop.

But all those organizations that have problems with one or more of the aspects will face a serious challenge, because if they don’t resolve the matter quickly, it could be the beginning of their end. It is not important which particular aspect is being demonised by these companies, because the fact is that the climate is unwell, and if this is not dealt with at the root, they may find themselves going out of business.

3. Insight Management and Work Climate

Talking about the work climate makes me think about the weatherperson and the way we fix our eyes on them and hold them responsible for all our happiness before, during and after the holidays. The same thing happens in the workplace: we often hold the company responsible for all the evil that occurs there, as though the company were something separate from all the people who work there and are a part of it, as if it were a diabolical being that swallows us and spits us out. Of course this is not true. Whether you work on the shop floor or as a manager, you want to generate a positive atmosphere and feel that you are in charge of your own life, and that you are working to achieve that. The company, via its bosses, can and should organize meetings to initiate and strengthen healthy and enjoyable connections, and identify and reject toxic individuals. It is the actual people who work there who will best know the state of the work climate and who should be most willing to help improve it.

In this sense, working with people from departments and companies that have survived mergers, I have met with both good and bad intentions: inertia-synergy and resistance-embargo. In the emerging climate we will find people from different business cultures enjoying different status and privileges and different operating methods and concepts, including different moral frameworks. Surviving the changes is a milestone. After a period of enormous stress because of fear of not surviving the changes, there comes a vacuum, where everybody tries to refocus their careers, relocate their mission, learn from the new environment and discern who the new allies are, the new bonds, what the new plans are, etc. Unfortunately, after months and even years many people will still be talking about ‘us’, former workers from such and such a company that failed to take on a new, wider identity, and they will muddy the atmosphere with caste differences. An insistence on perpetuating differences instead of progressing towards union is a perverse, selfish, individual or even group impulse which displays the death throes of the old company presence and its culture. Differences and belonging are opposite ends of the same spectrum, and if they are not used positively they give rise to ways of playing for or against, alone or in company. Their effect on output, happiness, focus and so on is obvious.

There are many types of business and many different kinds of climates or atmospheres. Aside from more conventional environments, there are trailblazers in garages or groups of colleagues gathered around ping-pong tables backgrounded by wildly painted walls, but all having a good time because they are producing and creating. These companies don’t only guarantee that the air will be well ventilated and that the space is adequate, they actually create the environment. Lots of people think that these pioneers are geniuses, setting up their businesses in 24 hours, something that larger companies can’t do. Are they wrong? Is a garage business better? Does it provide a better fit?

Frankly, I don’t know. Each actual case has to be examined, but what is obvious is that increasingly there are more areas devoted to co-working and creation points that bring together innovation, contact and inspiration outside of the cavernous, goldfish bowl or closed door office.

So now you see efforts being welded to workspaces in the area of diversity. In addition to this, spaces where you can see and be seen as a professional are not only physical – evidenced by beautifully lit, multidisciplinary designed loft spaces – but also virtual: on the net, via portals, links, hyperlinks, blogs, social networks, etc. Work which brings together a variety of people, countries and sectors emerges from unparalleled wealth. However, in the following pages we will only contemplate companies where the space is not virtual, and employees are breathing the same air.

So let’s look at the various types of environment and person: a company that fosters a creative environment with colours on the walls, meeting spaces and laid-back work areas, might actually find that it is immovably anchored by workers who are not comfortable in that environment, or who find themselves unable to make the most of it simply because they are intimidated by the new, by change, by their own rigidity and prejudice against what is different. And there are also very conservative companies that constantly stamp on any kind of spontaneity, brilliance, genuine movement or real creativity. This attitude will not only be their ruin, but also the death of the creative people who work there, who will end up being buried. If you think your life is miserable, change it, and stop complaining about the company.

As individuals and teams, we should first work out what kind of people we are, what we or our fellow workers need in order to be happy, to feel freer as regards creativity and its expression. You can’t generalise, there are no universal prescriptions here, only those that you draft. There is a difference between having a workforce aged between 55 and 60, all old-style engineers with ties, briefcases and pockets full of pencils – and employing a majority of programmers or advertising people who are in their twenties, who wear flip-flops, T-shirts and untrimmed beards. It’s no good just getting this group to wear suits, or the other group to enjoy coloured walls. Please – go with the flow, not against it.

Bear with the real situation in which your workers find themselves and take care of their well-being. Talk with them, listen to them, respect their creative processes in a supportive way and face the facts. Are they productive?? Set them free at the same time as you provide them with a framework of moral and spiritual security which they can cling to in tough times. In other words, be sure that they are very clear as to exactly how far they can go. This will bring tranquillity, because they need to know they can let rip within the limits while being aware of where those limits are. Limits guarantee a framework that works for the company and for the individual, so you’re saved from going crazy in a world of unlimited creative expansion. Anybody who can neither be creative nor happy in this environment, or who fails to find their niche, will just have to keep on travelling until they do. The company must take care of the environment, talk to the individual and if that person cannot adapt, then he or she must be given the chance to look for another place to be happy in.

Of course, what I have just said must not be taken to mean we must seek sameness in order not to stand out from the crowd. Far from it. The quest for diversity is fascinating, as is the task of respecting and stimulating every person’s individuality. Allow me to mention a few examples of diversity that are a little bit out of the ordinary: one of my clients is a rather well-known chef, but he’s well over six feet tall. This means that on ergonomic grounds, he is unable to work in many of the country’s kitchens, since they tend to be small, narrow and low. I know another man who was rejected from the army for being too short. Then there’s a Muslim who would do better with an office where he can shut the door and pray at the appointed hours.

Variety is the spice of life. A business must welcome individuality and nurture it, and be enriched by a variety of people who bring along their talent as well as their variety. Given the global village we live in, companies should benefit from diversity, and make the most of it without making judgements.

Let’s not forget that diversity starts with gender. What makes us different, makes us profitable. It isn’t just the fact that it happens to be fashionable and more comfortable to have both men and women in the business. It’s simply that being open to the presence of both sexes is the only guarantee that prejudice will not diminish what each person can offer. The natural tendency is to develop individually by balancing the masculine and feminine qualities that all carry within, and each at their own rhythm. A real team is balanced between male and female because it can better respond to bigger and more varied challenges. There are a few minor exceptions, but generally speaking, men and women keep things in balance, as a complete yin yang.

In the same vein, here is another genuine case, included as a rather non-obvious case of what people really need, rather than what they think they need. One female manager who seemed to be in need of absolutely nothing, and had merely dropped in for a chat, was actually locked into a situation where she felt enormously bored and anxious because she just didn’t feel particularly useful where she worked. She had a boss who did everything himself, and she felt she wasn’t allowed to contribute anything to help. She and her superior didn’t communicate, and he never asked her to undertake anything complex, so she felt unjustified collecting her high salary. Her mistake was to value herself only in terms of results, of the image that was projected upon her, with the result that her self-esteem went through the floor and her sense of having a mission in life had vanished. Moreover, she suffered in silence, never communicating this situation, and thus never found an opportunity where anybody might justly recognize her achievements. It was a serious problem, made all the worse for going unnoticed. In fact had anybody realized, they would simply have advised her to carry on collecting her big salary and enjoying her lack of pressure. What she needed, in addition to clear communication with her supervisor, was to be entrusted with challenges that would make her feel necessary and important. So, you’re not just the sum total of your successes and failures; you’re much more, and also much less.

I think it’s important for me to say something about psychological temperature, which can endanger a company’s survival. A company’s climate is not measured only by professional success, which for a professional team may be an important aspect of motivation; it can also be measured by caring relationships, personal bonds, a desire to be there, happiness – or, indeed, the opposite: unfriendliness, hostility or rejection. In some cases I’ve had clients that confess that a colleague of theirs is efficient, but their relationship doesn’t gel, nothing seems to click, communication channels in general don’t flow, and they don’t create any kind of synergy between them. It’s a waste, because in different environments both parties could be richer, more productive and positive.

Psychological temperature is not a common concept, or even an efficient one, since it depends a great deal on the culture of the country, of its people, their characters, and so on. So “Marriage, Italian Style” with Sofia Loren, requires much more passion and friction than a serene Romy Schneider style partnership. Each person and each coming together of two persons has to happen “in its own way”, and each job and each environment at its own temperature. Everything that works is OK. Can you imagine a rugby team coming into a stadium for the Grand Final and warming up with Tai Chi? Can you picture a Japanese calligrapher or a Zen master gardener operating to the strains of ear-splitting heavy metal? To each their own, and with harmony.

Mention must be made of the fact that the work climate also depends on the presence of protection from other directions, such as the legal framework, trade unions, work inspectors, reconciliation tribunals, etc. All have varying roles of importance when it comes to understanding and favouring a given environment.

And let us not forget Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) as a tool for generating a high-quality climate both internally and externally. There is no doubt that for many workers it is important to feel that they work in a company that not only complies with the law, but that also strives to make a positive difference. Improving the internal and external climate is a feedback loop that is always a positive, win-win situation that should never be underestimated, since it is profitable all the way around.

On the matter of the disturbing marriage between spirituality and business, let’s go straight to its heart: if you’re a manager, don’t interfere, just relax and keep your nose out. Trust everybody to find the best way to stay centred, internally and externally connected and from top to toe, comfortable with their own positions, performing their duties professionally and existentially and feeling fulfilled and happy. All will be well. It isn’t a question of urging staff to perform mid-morning prayers, meditation or Tai Chi (although it wouldn’t do them any harm), because for some this would be very alien to their culture, and hence forced. It’s a question of their being where they want to be because they choose to be there, not because the boss is watching them with a menacing look on his face. They made the decision and they are focused, attentive, connected and mindful.

To achieve this you will have to put up with, or even come to appreciate, their rites of connection (from going outside to smoke a cigarette, checking their Facebook account for ten minutes before starting work or during breaks, sipping coffee while staring out the window, playing music, sending personal emails for a minute or two, planning how they can do what they are about to do better, etc.). To each his own, as in Sinatra’s song: I did it my way.

When the managers are performing their existential duties, they will also be at ease and not tempted to stand over anyone, aware that all the members of the company are necessary where they are and to the extent of their abilities. Everybody contributes, everybody works and everybody is travelling in the same vessel. Spirituality in business, experienced by each individual in his or her own way and not necessarily connected with any religion, has the effect of increasing the feeling of belonging to something bigger than yourself, of gratitude for what has been received and of satisfaction for work well done. There is no better attitude in life and no better work environment.