Throughout human history, work was grueling and bosses tended to manage through fear and intimidation. As our world evolved, work did too, but management styles haven’t kept pace.

Today, the disconnect between aware, experienced workers with access to information from all over the world and work environments that treat them like modern day Medieval serfs is huge.

The time is ripe for change, and it’s happening now through a movement that’s gathering momentum. Whether you call it “kind workplaces,” “compassionate work cultures,” “better businesses,” or “respectful work environments,” the goal of this change is the same: recast business culture to improve employee motivation and satisfaction.

Improving workplace culture leads to increased retention of talent and customers, which, in turn, generates more profits. How? Lower costs associated with talent recruiting and onboarding. Better communication improves collaboration, which streamlines processes, saving time. Teamwork and direct conversations improve trust, which paves the way for innovations, and, again, more profit.

It’s not just about “being nicer.” In fact, it’s not about “niceness” at all.

Kind cultures take hard work. They require a company-wide commitment to investment in:

• Gaining self-awareness and an awareness of one’s impact on others—not just for leaders. Everyone in the organization needs to up their EQ.
• Building and maintaining trust. Rewarding honesty even when it’s uncomfortable.
• Dynamic, direct communication. Be clear, be intentional. Speak from the head and the heart. Don’t avoid conflict, embrace healthy tension.
• Being compassionate, which is not the same as “nice.” Nice seeks to spare feelings and can be dishonest, leading to mixed messages and confusion. Compassion places a value on the truth wrapped in a digestible wrapper. Be honest but not brutal.
• Ensuring 360° Respect. Making sure, regardless of title, tenure, or any other factor—respect is shown all day, every day, by everyone, to everyone.

Achieving and sustaining kind cultures is a tall order. It’s also the direction smart companies are moving.

Why, and why now?

We’re at an inflexion point brought about by factors too numerous to name. To frame the why and why now, consider these:

• The earth’s climate is driving change in ways we are just beginning to recognize. It’s taking its toll on where people can live as well as how, where, and when they can work.

• Covid turned the world upside down and the world of work along with it. People learned they could be at least as productive from home. By skipping their commutes, they gained more time to invest in themselves and their personal relationships. When offered the opportunity to return to pre-Covid work practices, many declined. As companies work through the considerations for keeping and attracting good workers and fostering supportive work environments, hybrid options will likely take the lead, requiring new ways to ensure respectful communications.

• And while hybrid work will likely be the predominant mode for knowledge workers, working 5 days a week, 9-5 in an office is not in our collective futures. Studies are showing a strong preference for working a reduced workweek with some companies having success with 4, 10-hour days and other options.

• The prevalence and push of AI into all areas of work is already having an impact on how to judge the credibility of information—new protocols are important for helping people learn what is true and how to vet and respond to information they receive.

• Growing interest in trade professions coupled with new technologies to perform in them will require fresh thinking and focused communications.

• As we become more sophisticated in gauging outputs, we’ll move away from time-based metrics and toward those aligned with how companies and workers calculate value.

With all this and more as the backdrop, people want and expect more control over their lives and the role work plays in them. At the same time, employers are hungry for skilled talent to drive their businesses forward. Everyone is feeling pressure and everyone is looking for relief. The time is right to embrace the wisdom of Marshall Goldsmith: “What got you here won’t get you there” and tees up compassionate workplaces perfectly.

As we collectively learn that we are indeed all in this together and no one has been spared the pressures of humanhood, practicing compassion and directness is transforming conscious business from “woo-woo” to logical.

If you visit the resources section of ABetterParadigm.com, you’ll find a growing list of training and development programs, coaches, and consultants, along with an equally expanding list of organizations that focus on compassionate workplaces or include those in their other offerings. In addition, there are vetted lists of books, podcasts, and other tools for learning about and implementing best practices for building and sustaining the workplaces of the future now.

We’re building our free, easy-access directories for you. Check them out to find resources to help your company accelerate its transformation to a more respectful culture.

And if you are or know of great service providers, SaaS platforms, podcasts, or other resources helping accelerate the transformation to respectful workplaces, let us know.