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to create such an environment. Instead long hours, thousands of emails, hundreds of meetings and inhumane behaviour still predominate in many places of work today. Bullying and harassment are exactly what happened at the University of Prince Edward Island (UPEI) in Canada last year. Allegations were made against then president Alaa Abd-El-Aziz, leading to an investigation by a prominent Toronto law firm. This third-party review publicly revealed a toxic culture of harassment and racism at UPEI, with allegations of sexual and gender- based violence. It also highlighted the university’s failure to address these issues effectively and led to the resignation of its board. State premier of Prince Edward Island Dennis King then publicly condemned the university’s culture, stating he was “sickened” by the report’s findings and expressing concerns about sending his own children to UPEI. Without decisive action, your institution could be next. HOW TO PREVENT A POISONOUS CULTURE FROM EMERGING Of course, it doesn’t have to be this way and a toxic culture need not be an inevitability. It’s something that can be mitigated against, with a few simple steps and an ongoing leadership commitment to invest in culture. Here are the actions that I recommend leaders take. As an organisation, you get the culture that you choose to build. Senior leaders who put time, thought and effort into building culture in a meaningful way will avoid the conditions that lead to toxicity. This means involving employees of all ages and tenures in defining your values, behaviours and ways of working, rather than telling them what they are. Employees will take pride in upholding a culture that they feel they have had a say in. They will take accountability for its positive evolution and actively manage
those that seek to undermine what they’ve built. It also requires an investment in management training. Millions of dollars are wasted every year investing in complex leadership development programmes that are reserved for a special few potential ‘leaders’. However, positive cultures tend to be built, with productivity generated and results achieved, when you have competent middle managers. When middle managers understand how to build teams, communicate effectively, set expectations, have courageous conversations and motivate the individuals on their teams to achieve a set of results, everyone benefits. When employees feel motivated to achieve, leaders see their organisations succeed in almost every metric. Of course, this approach takes time and costs money, but it’s an investment worth making. Not only is it reflected in the bottom line, but it can also be seen in the cultural reputation that the organisation has, which in turn attracts other high-potential people who want to perform at the highest level in a values‑driven environment. It
also mitigates the risk of revenue and reputation loss, as seen so starkly in the case of CBI. Having worked with almost 100 teams in 20 countries, I can tell you that this approach works for any organisation. From universities and business schools to sports teams, banks and start-ups, toxic culture is the biggest risk that organisations face. Only by choosing to actively build culture can leaders everywhere avoid the conditions that will lead to this risk becoming an issue in which the media takes an active interest.
Colin Ellis is a culture consultant and the author of Detox Your Culture , published by Bloomsbury Business. Together with the University of Georgia,
Ellis has developed a quiz that determines whether your current culture feels vibrant, combatant, pleasant, stagnant or toxic
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Business Impact • ISSUE 4 • 2024
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