Back To Basics
Building a healthy workplace culture takes more than good intentions. It takes real commitment to your values. And it takes a willingness to roll up your sleeves and do the work so that your stakeholders, especially employees, know (not just hope) that they can trust you to look after their best interests. Here’s where to start:
1. High Trust
A recent Gallup poll found that only 1 in 3 employees trusts his/her leaders. Focusing on transparency and being consistent are keys to creating high trust cultures.
2. Authenticity
The days of window dressing, check-the-box solutions are over. Employees are demanding an authentic commitment to cultures that are healthy, safe, inclusive…and fun.
3. Radical Fairness
Giving everyone a sense of having a fair shot at succeeding at your organization is a key driver of success. Focus on actual fairness and on perceptions of fairness.
Root Causes of Drama in Workplace Culture
Over my career, I have identifies the eight common root causes of drama. Each of the items below can be remedied by focusing your efforts on the three workplace culture basics of high trust, authenticity, and radical fairness.
- Inauthentic leadership
- Problem-solving deficit
- Persistent confusion
- Lack of transparency
- Communication gaps
- Increased division
- Culture of complicity
- Blind spot pop ups
- Wrong solution
- Unwillingness to admit wrongdoing
To prevent, manage or resolve workplace drama, you need a strategy that accounts for human psychology. The Drama-Free Workplace not only identifies these root causes in more depth from a psychological perspective, it also offers a roadmap to creating a healthy workplace culture and organization.
Additional Resources for Workplace Culture
- Forbes: Four Ways To Create Transparency In The Workplace
- Harvard Business Review: Why Radical Honesty Is Good Business
- Understanding workplace drama starts with understanding human psychology (one of my favorite topics):
Our mission is to help create and support healthy workplace cultures. Part of that mission is to provide tips and advice on how to evolve your workplace into a truly inclusive environment. Feel free to share with anyone who you think could benefit from our message.
About PersuasionPoint
Patti Perez is the founder and CEO of PersuasionPoint, a consulting and training firm focused on helping organizations navigate conflict, misconduct, and high-stakes decisions with fairness, clarity, and credibility. She is the award-winning author of The Drama-Free Workplace (Wiley) and the creator of Mastering Workplace Investigations, a human-centered training program designed to strengthen investigative judgment, reduce bias and noise, and build trust at critical moments.
Through training, advising, and leadership development, Patti helps organizations move beyond compliance to create cultures rooted in transparency, curiosity, and organizational justice.
Email Patti directly at Patti@PersuasionPoint.com.