The Five Science-Based Practices of the Thriving Organization

by Parker Houston, PsyD, ABPP, CPCC, Chief Psychologist, Department of State Hospitals

Each week, DSH's very own Parker Houston, Psy.D, ABPP, CPCC publishes a new blog post on his Lead You First website. This year, we'll be sharing those posts here on our LinkedIn page. To read more of Dr. Houston's work, visit his blog.

If you have been in the workplace for a while, chances are good that you’ve had a job you didn’t love.

The research we discuss today will help you understand what was lacking in that employer.

If you currently run a company or lead a team, you need to know about these five things, and implement them in your team or business.

For almost 20 years, the American Psychological Association (APA) did research on organizations to identify the most essential building blocks of psychologically healthy workplaces—The Center for Organizational Excellence.

In their years of study, they distilled 5 essential practices to create the best workplaces.

(This area recently merged with APA’s division of Industrial and Organizational Psychology.)

As a leader, you can use these principles to supercharge your organization or team. Without them, you will be severely limited—and the odds are good that your morale, engagement, and productivity will suffer.

The APA defines a psychologically healthy workplace this way:

“A psychologically healthy workplace (1) fosters employee health and well-being (2) while enhancing organizational performance and productivity.” ?????????????????

A question every leaders should ponder—As a leader, how can I help team members do what they do best every day and grow in their careers, AND meet the organizations most important goals at the same time?

With very few exceptions, when you help employees win—the organization wins too.

The Five Things

Employee Health and Safety: This might seem like a no brainer, but unless your organization is military or law enforcement, people need to know they will be safe at work. Like Maslow’s hierarchy, this is a required foundation. But growing research also highlights that employees need psychological safety as well. This means that people need to feel like they can share unpopular opinions and also that their shortcomings won’t be used against them. It is also the job of the leader to eliminate toxic gossip that undermines psychological safety in a team.

Employee Involvement: The most basic principle of Organizational Development is this—People are more likely to support and carry out an idea they helped to create. Your team members need a voice in the decision-making process. Leadership expert Patrick Lencioni says that “reasonable people don’t need to get their way every time, but they do need to know their ideas have been heard and understood.” It might be important to create regular forums or channels by which employees can give input.

Another key principle of leadership that applies here is that the leader may need to define the end result they want—while allowing the team member the freedom to find a creative way to get there.

Work-Life Balance: Numerous recent studies have shown that our hyperconnected age has blurred the lines between work and home life. If you don’t help set a culture where you demonstrate that employee’s personal lives are important, you will burn them out fast. And your team cannot thrive and be burned out at the same time. If they thrive, your organization thrives.

By all means, demand excellence and results from your team—but make sure you also model what it looks like to disconnect and recharge. As the leader, it is your job to set the tone and pace on this. Make sure have things outside or work that bring richness and meaning to your life.

Employee Growth and Development: Top employees want to gain mastery at skills that matter. They want to know they are on a trajectory toward being the best in their field. They might even want to take on greater leadership opportunities. If you don’t provide these avenues for them, you won’t keep them. And the most progressive companies help people develop in their not just in their professional lives, but in their personal lives as well. They help them grow as professionals, and as humans! Some companies will even provide resources to help employees improve their marriages, parenting skills, physical health, and financial competence. What would our world be like if our future workplaces all looked like that?

“Train your people well enough so they can leave. Treat them well enough they won’t want to.” –Sir Richard Branson

Employee Recognition: Here is the simple fact—people who feel unappreciated leave. Find regular ways to recognize people. A great strategy is to highlight stories that support the culture you want to create. Be creative and consistent. The APA recommends having a structured way to do this in order to promote a vibrant work culture.

If your team or organization has been struggling with turnover, absences, or lack of employee engagement, the there is a high probability that one or more of these five practices are missing.

Turn information into action

Here are some questions for reflection:

• How can you provide more professional growth opportunities for your team members?
• What systems could you use to elicit more input from your team members into organizational decision making?
• How do you regularly ensure you recognize and appreciate people?
• What is the evidence that you model a healthy work-life balance? Do you reward employees who do this?
• How could you improve physical or psychological safety in your workplace?

Have a great weekend.

-Parker

Suggested resources:

1. APA Division of Psychologically Healthy Workplaces—Center for Organizational Excellence
2. The 5 Dysfunctions of a Team—Patrick Lencioni

Opinions expressed are the author's own.