Are You a Red Zone or a Green Zone Organisation?
What is a Red Zone Organisation?
A Red Zone is when there is a high level of distasteful competition within your organisation, uncooperative spirit and unshared knowledge among team members. Everyone guards their turf for self preservation.
What is a Green Organisation?
A Green Zone culture, on the other hand, is an organisation where collaboration and teamwork operate. People in this organisation rank high on emotional intelligence. Trust, open and candid dialogue, shared values, and respect among the team are the standard.
Why is knowing the difference important?
Salesforce, a CRM solution company, claims 86% of executives identify the major cause of business fiascoes are ineffective collaboration and communication.
Knowing the problem is the first step in solving the problem. If you admit to yourself that you are breeding a Red Zone team, resolve to take action.
Is there a chance for a Red Zone culture to transition to the Green Zone?
Definitely! Here’s how.
- Be honest
Trust is built on honesty. If each team member knows that they can speak their truth and not be bludgeoned to death for it, they will absolutely speak the truth. Besides, who wants to be burdened with cover-ups? It is easier, to be honest, than to be burdened by creating a story to save face. Lie begets lie. When will it stop, right?
If people within your organisation keep information because they do not feel safe revealing it, you know your company is not scoring well on the trust index.
You can test the level and strength of your relationships with the extent of truth each one can handle. Can you handle the truth without flying off the handle?
Create an environment where people feel safe sharing information without fear. Start by listening. And listen without judgment.
- Encourage accountability
Accountability is doing what you said you will do, following through, and being accountable for the outcome.
A good team player is aware that their job affects the job of the next team members, so their delay ultimately results in the poor performance of the whole organisation.
A better way to encourage a culture of accountability is to add a NEXT STEP feature in your next team meeting. In this feature, the team leader assigns the people in charge of tasks and sets the deadline for each assigned task. Be sure to establish a check-in system to monitor developments.
As your team understands and performs the skill seamlessly, level up from a task-based to an outcome-based approach.
- Foster a collaborative spirit
Connect with people on a relational level, not transactional.
In a study conducted by Businessolver 2019 on the State of Workplace Empathy, 93% of employees said they will more likely stay with an empathetic employer, and 78% said they would work longer hours for them.
Employees tend to collaborate and cooperate well when they recognise and experience empathy within their organisation. Genuine empathy is looking after another person, going the extra mile to assist a colleague with a project deadline, checking in on them, asking them if they needed help on a task assignment, etc.
- Be self-aware
Do you have an idea of your blind spots? As Socrates‘ motto says, “Know Thyself.”
It is by knowing yourself that you become aware of your weaknesses and your strengths. It will help you relate better with others. Strive to understand your motivations, behaviour, feelings, and attitude. Why do you react in a certain way to a situation and towards certain people?
A Green Zone killer is defensiveness. You might not be aware you are exhibiting this behaviour. It could be one of your blind spots. An empathetic colleague or manager may reveal it in one of your one on one meetings. Be grateful for the feedback.
- Endorse win-win solution
Is your organisation conflict-free? Even the best of the best organisations experience conflicts!
Knowing the basics of conflict resolution will help you and your team live long-term in a Green Zone. Learn the Interest-based approach in conflict resolution. It is finding out the deep-seated interest of parties involved before even starting on working on the solutions. It is a win-win approach.
This approach applies both in your personal and business relationships.
TAKEAWAY
Do you have a high turnover rate? People with a Red Zone mindset leave at the first sight of a higher paycheck. Do not make the mistake of paying more to keep a Red Zone employee. Create a Green Zone working environment instead by helping your team transition from a Red Zone mindset.
Like any skill, collaboration and communication skills can be learned, developed, and improved. Help your team master the skill and see how you will boost your employee retention, productivity, and profitability.
If you want to transition from Red Zone to Green Zone, let me help you. Let’s talk!
