As a founder and driving force of start-up industry in Thailand, “Mimee – Oranuch Lerdsuwankij”, a CEO and co-founder of Techsauce, a platform that put together all movements and information that are beneficial for a start-up business, perceives that keys to achievement do not depend on just people, vision and mission but also an organisational culture that differs among organizations. Organizational culture is not just what people inside the organization can see, but what outsiders can perceive on the values that the organization treasures!

Those who are ready to learn come first!

Let us take a look at Techsauce as an example. The organization does not give privilege to genius but emphasizes on experience sharing to allow every working individual to learn together. Also, if they have to choose between an expert who cannot get along with others and an average person who is willing to learn with a “Learning mindset”, the latter will be chosen. This is because the hunger to learn will make them ever-improving. Dr. Joshua W Pas, Corporate Innovation Director and Managing Director of adventures by SCG, used to say that to choose a person to work in one’s organization, choose from their attitude and passion as they make a person have a learning mindset and always ready to learn new things.

Share the knowledge to fellow co-workers

Not only should talented individuals be praised for doing their jobs well, but their experience and achievement will also be emphasized and shared as a case study for the rest of the organization.
 

Because one of the crucial factors that will improve the organizations in this era is to have “Space for Knowledge Sharing”, a platform for people in the organization to share experiences of their expertise, such as direct experiences or information obtained from attending the seminars to their fellow colleagues.“The importance of knowledge sharing is not just about what we have learned, but how to adapt it and use it in our organization.”
 

Nowadays, organizations will have to stress on creating more “Growth Mindset and Project-Based Learning”. If there is an employee wanting to resign, to recruit another employee to replace the previous person would cause the organization time and resources to train the new employee. In this case, the organization could solve this problem by relocating the particular employee to the department that they are interested in or come up with a special project for them to try working in a new field as well as starting learning activities such as Hackathon to develop a mindset of the people in the organization, share knowledge among departments as well as develop a relationship among departments.

Open communication

Apart from sharing knowledge, clear and effective communication is another important factor as it helps people in the organization to reflect on their work, talking about difficulties and problems that they face as well as giving suggestions and advice to one another. This could be done through face-to-face interaction like a meeting or, sometimes, open communication will have to be utilized for people to stay anonymous which allows them to give their honest opinion, resulting in clear and effective feedback. To positively get along with the organizational culture that is open-minded, encouraging people to think and try new things, leaders will have to be empathetic, not just sympathetic, with their underlings. A one-on-one meeting could be organized between leaders and staff under them and it does not have to necessarily be about work, but any other topics like well-being. If there is a chance, leaders could ask whether there is any problem, making the staff feel that their leaders can be relied on.

Cultivating a culture of transparency in the workplace

Another important point is cultivating a culture of transparency in the workplace. Do not let outsiders be more influential than people inside. For example, if there is a rumor that an employee will resign. Instead of laying them off or avoiding seeing each other, they should be called to clarify the story.

In some cases, stop toxic measures might have to be used to solve issues in the organization. For instance, the organization has a talented worker but is very egoistic and causes problems for others while working. If the organization keeps this person for their talent, there might be a negative effect on the whole working system. Therefore, the organization has to sack this person to eliminate the potential long-term problem.
 

Citation: A Seminar on IBE – Innovation Based Enterprise Course under Topic of Creating an Innovative Culture/Innovation Leadership at FYI Centre on 22 October 2019.