Although there is a trend to try to change this, people still show up as cost on a company’s financial statement. I believe people are the most valuable asset an organization has because people make all the other assets work. How well the assets work is directly connected to how well motivated employees are.

In my previous post on employee motivation I outlined the cultural components for creating a motivated workforce. These components are: Recognition, Engagement, Alignment, Accountability, and Reward.

Each of your employees or teams puts forth a certain effort to perform their duties and solve problems in their area of responsibility. Problems that typically remain unsolved are those problems that do not clearly belong to one department or another, “the problems that lie in between”.

To solve these types of problems two essential elements have to exist:

1. An organization structure that encourages collaboration.
2. A culture of Mutual Trust and Mutual Respect. 

Organization structure that encourages collaboration, which is a topic on its own, can be accomplished in different ways. On the other hand to create a culture of mutual trust and respect two things employees or teams have to know:

1. That the ideas, thoughts, or opinions they share with the team or across functions will be appreciated and considered no matter what.

2. They also have to know that what they share will not be used to mock them, stab them in the back, or limit their careers. This may happen because someone thinks their ideas are silly, lack depth, or offer no real value, not because they do not but because of certain biases, cliques, and politics.

Mutual trust and respect combined with the cultural components I described above will create a culture of highly motivated individuals and highly motivated teams to solve operational and organizational problems that are left unsolved, often for years.