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How to Build a Happy Sandpit, by Colin J Brown
THE correlation between a happy staff member and increased output is the topic of many business books, and it is fallacious. I have observed many employees who are happy and are anything but productive.
There are many books in "The 10 Ways to Have Fun at Work" genre. They are, most often, a description of how to have fun at work, instead of working at work.
What is true, though, is that an employee who is keen to perform will do significantly better in an organisation where the culture is conducive to high performance.
Do not be misled by the title of this accessible book. This astute contribution to the practice of building a positive organisational culture is a compilation of insights, bolstered by the views of 60 well-known and successful South African business leaders.
The culture of a place affects behaviour. If you have any doubts about that, listen to the language people use in and around places of worship compared to social settings such as pubs.
Academics have been studying the culture of organisations for over half a century. The body of knowledge on this aspect of business is well developed. However, one would need to wade through the journals and books to extract practical gems.
How to Build a Happy Sandpit is an organised collection of such gems.
Allowing the wrong people into your organisation is a recipe for the wrong culture. Google’s founder took the position of not allowing “bozos” into their organisation. They believed that when you allow one “bozo” in, he will bring in other “bozos” too.
Chapter one of Brown’s book focuses on the imperative to hire correctly, lest you allow a “sand kicker” into the sandpit. This is the person who does not fit into the culture, and stirs dissent.
Hiring the right people is one of the most complex aspects of business, and is more art than science. Investec, for example, is firmly against using psychological profiling to select staff. Their grounds for this are that a fit with the bank’s culture is far too multifaceted to be captured by a test.
Many company leaders cited in the book prefer multiple interviews of candidates, and by different people. Some even favour home visits to form a sense of whether there will be a good fit between the candidate and the company.
On the other side of the interview table, candidates who are keen to join the company often overlook the inconveniences. The commute from Pretoria to Johannesburg does not appear a problem until the thrill of the new job wears off.
Most leaders genuinely desire to make their organisations pleasant places to work, but do not anticipate the long-term effects of their actions. What starts out as an act of generosity, the free lunch on Friday, soon turns into an entitlement.
This entitlement can even degenerate into conflict over the cuisine and animosity that vegetarians are not catered for and so should get a cash pay-out, and other absurdities.
The book is enriched by the experiences of the 60 leaders Brown interviewed. Their solutions to problems offer useful guidance. For example, do not institute “fun” elements at work on a permanent basis – schedule them with a clear end-date. Free lunches, this month only; the holiday bonus is for this year only.
A number of leaders reported that unions have made them reluctant to offer staff benefits, as more was demanded of them a year later.
It is vital not to lose sight of the real nature of a company.
If you invite a company to your function, no company will show up, only people. Many seem to lose sight of this. What may be intended as a fine gesture to "the employees" can seem insensitive or even absurd to the people who work in the company.
Brown reports that at year-end a bank’s leadership wished all a pleasant and restful vacation, despite the fact that banks are open throughout this period.
Companies consist of people, and principled leaders are acutely aware of this. They build the company culture around this fact.
Syspro’s CEO and founder Phil Duff makes his own coffee, despite leading a wordwide software company. The walk down the corridor to the kitchen gives him the opportunity to meet people spontaneously.
Sage VIP’s CEO Anton van Heerden tells new recruits that if they do not accord the same level of respect to the catering staff as they do to him, they do not belong in VIP.
Company cultures vary widely, even in the same group of companies. The advertising, marketing and communications group TBWA boasts multiple cultures.
What does not vary is the obligation of the leader to forge the desired culture. No one except the leader can do this. A hypothetical question Brown asked of leaders during his research for the book puts this issue into sharp relief: “If you left your organisation with no senior leadership for 18 months, what would it look like upon your return?”
Whether it would be the same or better, or “resemble a scene from the Lord of the Flies” is going to be a function of the skill of the leadership. Crafting a company culture that is conducive to a generally happy workplace is a primary leadership responsibility.
How to Build a Happy Sandpit is a popular contribution to company culture building without trivialising this critical success factor. It is full of fresh ideas and guidance, but most importantly, it is South African-based.
This is significant, as culture is always context sensitive.
Readability: Light -+--- Serious
Insights: High --+-- Low
Practical: High +---- Low
- FIn24
* Ian Mann of Gateways consults internationally on leadership and strategy. Views expressed are his own.
THE correlation between a happy staff member and increased output is the topic of many business books, and it is fallacious. I have observed many employees who are happy and are anything but productive.
There are many books in "The 10 Ways to Have Fun at Work" genre. They are, most often, a description of how to have fun at work, instead of working at work.
What is true, though, is that an employee who is keen to perform will do significantly better in an organisation where the culture is conducive to high performance.
Do not be misled by the title of this accessible book. This astute contribution to the practice of building a positive organisational culture is a compilation of insights, bolstered by the views of 60 well-known and successful South African business leaders.
The culture of a place affects behaviour. If you have any doubts about that, listen to the language people use in and around places of worship compared to social settings such as pubs.
Academics have been studying the culture of organisations for over half a century. The body of knowledge on this aspect of business is well developed. However, one would need to wade through the journals and books to extract practical gems.
How to Build a Happy Sandpit is an organised collection of such gems.
Allowing the wrong people into your organisation is a recipe for the wrong culture. Google’s founder took the position of not allowing “bozos” into their organisation. They believed that when you allow one “bozo” in, he will bring in other “bozos” too.
Chapter one of Brown’s book focuses on the imperative to hire correctly, lest you allow a “sand kicker” into the sandpit. This is the person who does not fit into the culture, and stirs dissent.
Hiring the right people is one of the most complex aspects of business, and is more art than science. Investec, for example, is firmly against using psychological profiling to select staff. Their grounds for this are that a fit with the bank’s culture is far too multifaceted to be captured by a test.
Many company leaders cited in the book prefer multiple interviews of candidates, and by different people. Some even favour home visits to form a sense of whether there will be a good fit between the candidate and the company.
On the other side of the interview table, candidates who are keen to join the company often overlook the inconveniences. The commute from Pretoria to Johannesburg does not appear a problem until the thrill of the new job wears off.
Most leaders genuinely desire to make their organisations pleasant places to work, but do not anticipate the long-term effects of their actions. What starts out as an act of generosity, the free lunch on Friday, soon turns into an entitlement.
This entitlement can even degenerate into conflict over the cuisine and animosity that vegetarians are not catered for and so should get a cash pay-out, and other absurdities.
The book is enriched by the experiences of the 60 leaders Brown interviewed. Their solutions to problems offer useful guidance. For example, do not institute “fun” elements at work on a permanent basis – schedule them with a clear end-date. Free lunches, this month only; the holiday bonus is for this year only.
A number of leaders reported that unions have made them reluctant to offer staff benefits, as more was demanded of them a year later.
It is vital not to lose sight of the real nature of a company.
If you invite a company to your function, no company will show up, only people. Many seem to lose sight of this. What may be intended as a fine gesture to "the employees" can seem insensitive or even absurd to the people who work in the company.
Brown reports that at year-end a bank’s leadership wished all a pleasant and restful vacation, despite the fact that banks are open throughout this period.
Companies consist of people, and principled leaders are acutely aware of this. They build the company culture around this fact.
Syspro’s CEO and founder Phil Duff makes his own coffee, despite leading a wordwide software company. The walk down the corridor to the kitchen gives him the opportunity to meet people spontaneously.
Sage VIP’s CEO Anton van Heerden tells new recruits that if they do not accord the same level of respect to the catering staff as they do to him, they do not belong in VIP.
Company cultures vary widely, even in the same group of companies. The advertising, marketing and communications group TBWA boasts multiple cultures.
What does not vary is the obligation of the leader to forge the desired culture. No one except the leader can do this. A hypothetical question Brown asked of leaders during his research for the book puts this issue into sharp relief: “If you left your organisation with no senior leadership for 18 months, what would it look like upon your return?”
Whether it would be the same or better, or “resemble a scene from the Lord of the Flies” is going to be a function of the skill of the leadership. Crafting a company culture that is conducive to a generally happy workplace is a primary leadership responsibility.
How to Build a Happy Sandpit is a popular contribution to company culture building without trivialising this critical success factor. It is full of fresh ideas and guidance, but most importantly, it is South African-based.
This is significant, as culture is always context sensitive.
Readability: Light -+--- Serious
Insights: High --+-- Low
Practical: High +---- Low
- FIn24
* Ian Mann of Gateways consults internationally on leadership and strategy. Views expressed are his own.
