Transformation in the workplace is not a new concept. What’s different is that it’s no longer the outlier, adopted by progressive disruptors and less mainstream companies without the baggage of tradition.
Our InteraWorks tagline Transforming Potential into Results fully embraces our belief that transformation is the next wave in the workplace. The face of the corporate training, learning, and development landscapes are changing in response to worker demands. Newer generations have different values, expectations, and priorities around work and are willing to job hop to find a place that gives them a sense of purpose and balance between the personal and the professional. Older generations are less willing to settle for going back to business as usual after the pandemic, and parallel social shifts over the last 2 years have revealed that there are better ways of doing work and business.
The Case for Transformation
Learning and development, training programs, and even coaching are going to have to make the shift to avoid being the Blockbuster to the new order’s Netflix. While on-demand pre-recorded training may be appropriate for some specific skills in the workplace, it will never be able to reach people at the internal level required for true transformation. It’s not only about individuals answering questions correctly. It’s now about digging deep for personal insights, creating space for internal awareness and honesty, and getting to the heart of the matter of why we are not showing up as our best selves every day. Our ideal of transforming potential into results reflects our understanding that transformation is the new wave in the workplace and not just a theoretical idea for academics and researchers to debate over drinks.
Corporations are waking up to the fact that people want to be seen and developed as whole people, not as cogs in the wheel in service to someone else’s benefit and vision. The best talent is leaving (or not attracted in the first place) in search of meaning from the hours of their lives they spend working daily. While this differs from person to person, multiple surveys from Gallop report millennials and Gen Z workers are not willing to settle. One survey indicated that young adults were willing to take nearly $7,600 a year less in pay to work in an environment where their development was prioritized, and their personal lives and well-being were demonstrably valued.
What We Know
At InteraWorks, we embrace the concept of transformation as a deep, lasting shift – one with impact to both the person and to the people and communities they affect through the course of their decisions and actions. More than a behavior change, it includes awareness, understanding, and that “I get it” moment that can’t be unknown once it’s been uncovered.
Albert Einstein said, “We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.” Simple enough. Yet, simple is not the same as easy. True transformation comes from a combination of insights, agreement, and commitment to doing things differently, combining the right tools and mindset to sustain ongoing change over time, and valuing a culture of ongoing learning and development.
Old habits are hard to break, which is why the concept of change alone isn’t enough. What’s required is the moment of stripping away all the old habits, defeating behaviors and internal messaging, and surface changes to get to the root of the matter. As Simon Sinek has been preaching for years, it’s all about the “why” and the “why” must have meaning beyond wanting to sell more products or make more money for stakeholders. It must include balance, change to internal structures instead of simply renaming the old way of doing things, and ongoing opportunities to maintain and build on growth.
Making it Happen
We are ready for this move forward. We are ready to partner with corporations and businesses who see the wave and want to ride it with us into a healthier, more balanced, and fulfilling future of getting the right results in the right places. Reach out for more information on how we can work together toward true transformation for the future of work.
Author – Cathey Stamps
Marketing & Partner Lead
About InteraWorks
InteraWorks is a global learning company on a mission to elevate the human experience at work. Specializing in professional development and performance enablement, we offer top-rated learning programs based on four defined conditions that must exist for individuals, teams including Effective Edge, Best Year Yet, and the Essentials series. Our integrated learning framework and online tools generate immediate and sustainable breakthroughs in performance. Through decades of working at all levels in enterprise companies across many industries, we’ve built a reputation for helping people and organizations harness their focus, mindset, talent, and energy to produce results that matter most.
We’ve defined four conditions that must exist for an individual, team, or organization to be effective within the arena of performance and development; Accountability, Focus, Alignment, and Integrity. We’ll continue to explore these and more in our blog and look forward to your engagement and interaction with us. Stay tuned as we engage the edges.