Does any of this sound familiar? I am not sure about LLNL but much of this applies to LANL. Maybe not all 12 but about 9 or 10 of these are true right now.
If employees are afraid to speak up, your culture is broken.
Here’s what silence really means:
➟ Leaders aren’t listening.
➟ Feedback is punished.
➟ Trust is nonexistent.
And here’s what happens next:
➟ Your best people leave.
➟ Creativity dies.
➟ Morale tanks.
12 Signs Your Culture is Broken:
— All the good people are leaving
— No one is sharing feedback
— People are pointing fingers
— Communication is weak
— Mistakes are punished
— Ideas get shot down
— Leaders don’t listen
— Creativity is stifled
— Gossip is rampant
— Trust is missing
— Stress is high
— Morale is low
Comments
Your signs of a broken culture are accurate, but are not directly applicable to a for-profit DOE contractor who are themselves steps removed, from real time free-market forces that would otherwise compel a company to change course.
➟ Feedback is punished.
" Trust is nonexistent."
There is very little trust at LANL
"And here’s what happens next:
➟ Your best people leave."
This has been happing since 2005 so so. LANL is not longer even close to the same lab it use to be. Bill P, a lab fellow even did a study showing the scientistic decline of LANL but his data also shows the same trend at LLNL and Sandia, while the other DOE labs are all increasing.
"➟ Creativity dies."
That is long dead
"➟ Morale tanks."
Mainly of the senior or mid career people. I think the new workers are not so demoralized and see this is just another job that they will be at for a few years before they move on. They do not really care about the projects, the mission. These is just nice 30 hour week job until something better comes along. Sorry but this is the truth.