Designing Exceptional Organizational Cultures: How to Develop Companies where Employees Thrive

WINNER: Nonfiction Authors Association Book Awards Gold Award 2021 Designing Exceptional Organizational Cultures is a practical guide for HR and OD professionals which explains how to proactively design, build and foster a culture that creates employee and business success. For a company to outperform the competition and achieve sustainable business growth, it needs a high performing, engaged and committed workforce with the skills the business needs both now and in the future. Attracting, motivating and retaining top talent can't be done simply by attaching individual benefits to specific job roles. To be effective, companies need to build an exceptional company culture where people want to work and that allows them to develop and perform to their full potential. Designing Exceptional Organizational Cultures provides guidance on all elements of building a top performing culture including how to identify and define core company values and embed them throughout policies, processes and behaviours as well as how to create an organizational structure that leverages employees' strengths for optimum performance. It also covers how to assess what roles the business needs, how to recruit for future success and make the most of non-traditional hires as well as covering employee engagement, motivation, reward, diversity and Learning and Development (L&D). With practical examples, tips and advice throughout , this is crucial reading for anyone needing to build a culture that attracts the very best talent and achieve sustainable business growth.

Table of Contents:
Chapter - 00: Introduction – C is for conscious; Chapter - 01: What is organizational culture?; Chapter - 02: Why top-performing cultures don’t happen by accident; Chapter - 03: Organizational structure; Chapter - 04: Identifying and defining core values; Chapter - 05: Skills for now and the future; Chapter - 06: Attracting and retaining the right talent; Chapter - 07: Engagement and motivation; Chapter - 08: Total Rewards; Chapter - 09: Diversity, inclusion, and belonging; Chapter - 10: Moving to action;

About the Author :
Jamie Jacobs is the co-founder of High Performanceology. For over 20 years she has built high-performing organizations and teams across the technology, financial services and hospitality industries as a HR and culture executive. Based in San Diego, California, she is President of the National Human Resources Association and a Professor at University of Southern California. Hema Crockett is an award-winning HR professional and the co-founder of High Performanceology. Prior to this she led the Total Rewards programme for LPL Financial and an HR Executive for Renovate America. Based in San Diego, California, she has also worked with Biotechnology companies and the US State Department.

Review :
"As two experienced practitioners, Hema and Jamie have unlocked the mysteries of organizational culture and provided a practical approach for learning and applying the important skills needed to drive an effective and sustainable culture. Their insights and examples are powerful. This book is an important read for all leaders invested in increasing engagement and motivation using values and belonging as tools." "Organizational culture is the most important factor for hiring and retaining high-performing talent and it's an area that so many organizations get wrong. This book clearly walks leaders through how to create a long-lasting culture that will out-perform your competition. A must read!" "Culture eats everything for breakfast! That's the essential message from Designing Exceptional Organizational Cultures. Create a high performing culture to achieve success on many levels: customer experience, employee experience and operational. It's a must-read for ambitious leaders seeking practical, detailed toolkits to create amazing organizations that competitors envy. As an executive coach, I love how Hema and Jamie articulate the link between high performing culture and the self-awareness of leaders. Every page oozes experience and expertise." "A company's future is dependent on nurturing its culture of today and what may be ahead. This book engages in the critical thought-provoking topics that support unleashing the power of people. Designing a future in today's environment is more challenging than ever and the concepts explored in this book support creating an environment for high-performing teams to flourish." "I'm so excited for this book and the impact it will have on every leader who reads it, every organization they touch, and the lives of everyone involved. Culture is how we solve the most important problems, build the best companies, and enrich the lives of the most people. Kudos to Jamie and Hema for their work and wisdom in writing it!" "There are thousands of ways for teams to climb the metaphorical mountain of success. Yet, at the core, a well-developed culture that supports everyone's actions is paramount. Jamie and Hema have done an exemplary job of simplifying and articulating how cultures can be intentionally created in Designing Exceptional Organizational Cultures. Having run multiple companies and worked with numerous cultures, this is a timely book for both aspiring and existing company executives." "A must read for every business and HR leader. Organizational culture is the most important factor for attracting and retaining high-performing talent and it's one area which many organizations get wrong. DEOC clearly walks leaders through how to create a long-lasting culture that will out-perform your competition. Especially valuable are the "Questions to Ask" at the end of the chapters, which serve to help the reader digest the content and reflect on how to apply their learnings within their own organization." "There is no shortage of books on the subject of organizational culture, but the treatment of the topic by the authors of Designing Exceptional Organizational Cultures: How to Develop Companies Where Employees Thrive will leave professionals in the fields of Human Resources and Organizational Development with a detailed handbook full of solid advice that goes beyond designing an acceptable culture, but rather an exceptional one that is intentional in its efforts to attract and retain the type of talent that reflects--or can be taught to reflect--the values of the company, closely aligns to its practices, and exceeds it expectations. The only way leaders can organically accomplish this is to follow the type of model that authors Jamie Jacobs and Hema Crockett outline--that of recognizing common pitfalls, asking the "right" questions--first and foremost of themselves--to determine next steps towards finding meaningful solutions, then moving into action to strategically employ these steps. Brief but pointed case studies, as well as nuggets of wisdom from successful leaders of companies around the world, drill down the points made by the authors. Final thoughts at the end of each chapter will move the reader to dig in further to discover ways to encourage employees to develop the behaviors and mindsets that help them contribute to the company culture just as much as the leaders do. Designing Exceptional Organizational Cultures is a masterful guidebook that belongs on the shelf of any company of any size in any industry."