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Turnover is always a challenge with any organization – people leave workplaces all the time, and it’s almost always harder and more expensive to replace someone than to keep them around. So how can you use the FISH! Philosophy to reduce your turnover going into 2024?

Well, we can start by setting goals. If you think about it, setting goals is really just a long-term way of practicing Choose Your Attitude: you’re making a decision about how you as an organization want to present yourself and what you want to achieve, and working towards that goal even in moments when your emotions may tell you otherwise.

So what sorts of goals can you set for your team to help keep them happy, healthy, and hanging around in 2024?

Show up for your team as the going gets harder

Does it ever just feel like life is getting a bit harder, a bit more chaotic, and a bit more stressful year after year? Even if our personal lives are advancing, the world around us can feel like it’s becoming less stable and less predictable year-in and year-out, and that ambient stress and anxiety can add up so that even a nice job feels overwhelming.

Of course, we all need to keep moving forward and doing our best, even when things are tough – that’s a given. But the more you can recognize the weight on your teams’ shoulders and show up for them when they’re struggling the most, the more they’ll see their career as a stabilizing force in their lives, not a volatile one.

Simply Being There when someone is having a rough day, needs some encouragement, or needs someone to vent to can be a massive benefit. You don’t need to cross professional boundaries, but if your team can see you as an emotional support rather than a brick wall, they’ll return the favor both to you personally and to the organization.

Make your office a place where people want to stay for the long haul

When employees feel valued, they tend to do their best work – and stick around rather than jump ship. A key element of this is treating people like, well… people! Your team aren’t a bunch of robots or AI programs that can do what you ask without support or positive reinforcement; they’re people with feelings, desires, bad days, and more.

Now obviously, the best way to ensure long tenure is by getting the basics right: fulfilling work for competitive pay with decent benefits and opportunity for advancement. But within this, there are plenty of smaller things you can do to Make Their Day and give them those warm and fuzzy feelings that keep us happy where we are.

Whether it’s buying lunch for the office (just because), offering genuine and compassionate feedback both when someone needs improvement and when they knock it out of the park, or even just asking someone’s opinion on a project outside their usual work, there are endless opportunities to spark joy and leave your team smiling as they hit their commute home.

These may not be enough to earn loyalty on their own (as anybody who’s endured the dreary retail “pizza party” can attest), but when combined with a fundamentally solid office culture, small positive moments help build strong connections that can span a full career.

Find a way for everyone to Play

One of the best ways to foster loyalty and encourage good people to stick around is by giving your team ways to feel like they have a say in the business. Fundamentally, this means finding ways to allow your team to express themselves openly and honestly without fear of retribution, negative judgment, or being shut down.

We talk a lot about the idea of Play, where people have unstructured time to ideate, propose or try new things, fail (and learn from their failures), and collaborate. This not only gives people an opportunity to express themselves, but when these ideas are considered without judgment, it makes them feel like a real member of the team, not just a cog in the machine.

The more space you can create for Play, the better your team will coalesce in the coming year – but even in situations where opportunities for free Play aren’t obvious, you can still build this camaraderie by finding other ways for people to share their true feelings: soliciting manager feedback during performance reviews, putting out suggestion boxes, and instituting open-door policies can be a huge boon – so long as you actually listen and take these ideas seriously, of course.

Ideas to Reflect On:

• Do any of your team members ever express frustration or anxiety to you or each other? How can you encourage a workplace that allows for emotional expression without negatively impacting productivity?
• What does your workplace do to build camaraderie and positive feelings that your competitors may not? How can you Make Their Day in a way that others don’t?
• Does your team have space to share new ideas, brainstorm, and take risks without fear of failure? How can you expand these spaces to every level of the organization?

Want to Implement FISH! in your organization?

Are you a leader?  Do you train others?  Do you want others to be leaders?

Charthouse Learning, the creator of the world-famous, award-winning, FISH! film is offering an in-person, 2-day workshop, interactive Train-the-Trainer lead by our Senior Trainer.

During our time together you’ll learn how to:

• Share the motivation and foundation of FISH!
• Introduce the FISH! film with the four practices.
• Present the invitation to apply the practices in everyday interaction with others.
• Build a sustainability and reinforcement program to transform the culture.
• Pick up tips from other FISH! Philosophers and develop a strategy to embed the practices into the DNA of your culture.
• Create an energized organization that is the “first choice” for employees, faculty, staff, leaders, and customers.

Plus, you will learn how to create a workplace where people choose to “be and bring” their best self everywhere, every day.

At the FISH! Train the Trainer you will:

• Dive Deep: Discover The FISH! Philosophy – full of “A-ha!” takeaways and perspective-shifting realizations.
• Transform: Make the four FISH! practices – Play, Be There, Make Their Day and Choose Your Attitude – an essential part of your professional and personal skill set.
• Discover: Learn practical ways to apply the FISH! practices to improve teamwork, service, leadership, retention and performance.
• Develop: Brainstorm strategies to embed The FISH! Philosophy into the DNA of your culture, strengthening your mission, vision and values.
• Collaborate: Learn and laugh with like-minded folks from across the globe.

Click Here for More FISH! Train the Trainer Information

Click Here for More FISH! Starter Kit Information

Whether you work in business, education, or healthcare, FISH! offers accessible, intuitive solutions to empower your workers, bring your team together, and introduce Play into your organization. We invite you to contact us today at 800.695.4534 or info@charthouse.com to speak with our cultural specialists, who will help you find the right FISH! Philosophy solutions that will nurture your organizational culture and motivate your team!

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