TODAY’S NEWS. TOMORROW’S INSIGHTS.A daily newsletter from McKinsey & Company
Brought to you by Liz Hilton Segel, chief client officer and managing partner, global industry practices, & Homayoun Hatami, managing partner, global client capabilities
Healthier hybrid teams. Job cuts, economic uncertainty, and other pressures are contributing to widespread employee burnout. At the same time, hybrid work practices can increase feelings of isolation, according to a Harvard Law School fellow. When teams are mentally and physically exhausted, leaders may energize colleagues by helping them connect their daily work to a broader purpose. Leaders could also celebrate small victories, and not just big ones. Making regular progress at work increases positivity and engagement, research shows. [HBR]
Collaborative culture. Cultivating a collaborative workplace can strengthen leadership, improve morale, and foster long-term growth, executives and industry experts say. When managers regularly hear employee feedback, they gain a deeper understanding of what workers need. This leads to more informed decision making, an entrepreneur says. Seeking feedback from a broad, diverse range of sources can also mitigate potential biases, uncover gaps in thinking, and boost trust and creativity, other leaders share. [Fast Company]
The power of one. The value of working together is intuitive to most leaders. However, capturing the full value of operating as one firm—which emphasizes a collective identity, working in teams, and shared decision making—is elusive for most, McKinsey senior partner Scott Keller and partner Blair Epstein explain. Our research shows unequivocally that it pays to be a one-firm workplace. Companies that adopt a one-firm operating model are 2.3 times more likely to be in the top quartile of high-performing organizations, McKinsey analysis finds.
Changing the culture. Successfully making the transition to a one-firm culture may be challenging, but it’s not impossible. In the 2010s, for example, Satya Nadella’s turnaround of Microsoft came from building “one company, one Microsoft—not a confederation of fiefdoms.” In practice, acting as one firm means hearing “we, us, and our” language more often than “me, mine, and theirs.” Learn the four change levers that decades of cognitive and behavioral psychology show can effectively create a one-firm work environment.
— Edited by Belinda Yu, editor, Atlanta
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