How do you develop a socially just organization?
In the old economy, the economic scales were particularly important. Everything revolved around production value and that made the economy predictable. The economy of today and tomorrow is not. This creates room to try new things: as a modern leader you now have the opportunity to do things completely differently with every choice you make. In this way your organisation not only creates economic value, but you can also pay attention to ecological and social values. So value-creating leadership! How to develop a socially just organization, I tell you in this blog.
Awareness
The development of a socially just organisation does not require extensive, lengthy and costly change processes. More important is making your employees aware. You do this by treating everyone in your organization equally. Make sure no one feels excluded or disadvantaged based on background, and make sure everyone has equal opportunities. Recognize the capabilities of all employees and pay attention to their load capacity. This is how you develop a powerful organisation in which everyone can contribute. How do you interpret this? By focusing on at least the following four aspects:
1. Ensure sufficient diversity in your team
Do you have enough disciplines in your team that complement each other? Many managers tend to gather the same kind of people around them. But the familiar “just put more friends on the team, then everyone will get along” really doesn’t help. That’s how you stop innovation. You don’t speak to each other anymore and laziness sets in sooner or later.
Therefore, include specialists and generalists in your team and people with different cultural backgrounds, personalities and talents. Different perspectives on problems complement each other and provide the best possible solutions. Admittedly, decision-making in a diverse team is not always easy. But the result is better! And it’s up to you as a manager to organise counter-power in your team: after all, there is no shine without friction!
2. Pay attention to participation and emancipation
Do you have a good idea of what is going on in society? Many managers are primarily concerned with solving problems that occur internally (in the team or in the organization). But this misses an important aspect: the playing field in which you operate as an organisation. It is your customers and the public who influence (the image of) your organisation through their purchasing behaviour and social media activities.
Make sure that you are also outward looking, towards society. Keep in touch with the developments in society. Open up your organisation to the best people, whether they are immigrants or natives, have a work-limiting disability, are men or women. That’s what society demands of you! Choose balance in your team and step over your own barriers. And don’t forget: the government organises a lot around people with a distance to the labour market. Take advantage of this!
3. Give people equal opportunities (but for real)
Do you have a personal preference for certain colleagues in your team? The extrovert, for example, who gives a lot of input in meetings? Try not to let it get to you. Also pay attention to the quieter one: he is probably bursting with wisdom and good ideas. Groups with more than five people always have “stills”. Give them space. By putting together smaller groups, for example. Or take that person aside, ask them questions. You’ll be amazed. Acknowledge that you have personal preferences, but step over them and actually give all colleagues equal opportunities.
4. Pay attention to health and well-being
Do many colleagues suffer from burn-out or is sick leave high for other reasons? Then don’t ignore these alarm bells. Being healthy and staying healthy is a joint responsibility of the employee and the employer. As a manager, you can create the conditions in which employees can continue to do their jobs as healthily as possible. Is there something going on at home? Talk about it. Make sure people can do their jobs properly. Don’t put them behind a desk for eight hours either. And set a good example! Don’t send people on lunch walks only to find themselves sitting around.
Socially just organisation: opportunities for inclusion
A socially just organisation is not just about the presence of a works council, good terms of employment and good working conditions. It’s all about the people in your organization. Are you taking good care of that, letting in everyone who is good at their job, and creating space for an inclusive HR policy? If so, this will have a positive influence on the functioning of your entire organisation and on your image. A socially just organization with modern leaders who create value on multiple levels is therefore no longer a “nice to have”, but a “must have”.
Do you want to know more about value creating leadership? Then download the ebook Leadership in the Economy of Value below. It gives you insight into the economy of tomorrow and what it means for the modern leader. Or
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E-book ‘Leadership in the economy of value’
Leading tomorrow’s challenges is all about achieving multiple value creation: economically viable, environmentally responsible and socially just outcomes. To realize this multiple value creation, it is not one organization that is ‘exclusively’ in charge, but the network, the community, the community.
Our E-Book ‘Leadership in the economy of value’ gives you insight into what value-creating leadership exactly means. You will be given the steps needed to put it into practice.
Moreover, it provides a practical interpretation of the concept of value-creating leadership based on our Rainbow Model.
