Mark Abbott’s Post

Are your mindful business values reflected fully across your business brand? Discover the power of mindful businesses and their top attributes! By embracing a holistic approach to success and prioritizing purpose, sustainability, and stakeholder well-being, mindful businesses can connect authentically in an ever-changing world. Led by mindful leaders and teams, mindful businesses prioritize responsible innovation, technology, transparency, and doing great work. They nurture employee well-being, promote life-centered alignment, and champion environmental stewardship through sustainable practices. Dive into their commitment to conscious consumption in tech and innovation, community investment, and continuous improvement. Consider how they lead by example, balancing profitability with societal impact for the greater good. Let's connect to explore how your business can embody these mindful attributes and own your distinct mindful "X Factor" - contact us through socials or through the NAR Creative website at https://lnkd.in/gfhtMgFj Video Accessibility: Group of diverse people with their hands in a circle with a large "X" for "X Factor" overlaid on top. On screen text says "Are your mindful business values reflected fully across your business brand? https://lnkd.in/gfhtMgFj. Explore mindful attributes. Top attributes of Mindful businesses. Purpose driven. Mindful Leaders and Teams. Human Well Being. Environmental Stewardship. Stakeholder Engagement. Mindful Tech and Innovation. Community Investment. Continuous Improvement. Linkedin, Instagram, and Facebook @narcreativefirm. Own Your Mindful "X Factor!" #MindfulBusiness #Business #MindfulBranding #Branding #Values #Sustainability #Mindfulness #Leaders #MindfulTeams #ResponsibleInnovation #NARCreativeFirm #Mindful #Resilience #Innovation #Technology #Teams #MindfulDesign

Can spirituality and business coexist? Absolutely they can! Spirituality and business can coexist harmoniously and, in fact, can enhance each other in meaningful ways. At Wright Communications (New Zealand) we like to think we embody a pioneering spirit – from our approach to PR and comms strategies to our dedication to sustainability. This week, we took a bold step towards understanding ourselves and each other better by hosting a session with a Human Design facilitator, Charlotte Hill of True North. Why did we do this? We believe that supporting our people holistically is the key to unlocking their true potential. By understanding our leading gifts and decision-making styles, we can foster deeper empathy and collaboration within our team. After all, when we bring our whole selves to work, we create an environment where everyone thrives. Human Design, is a holistic self-knowledge system. It offers a comprehensive map of our energetic blueprint, detailing how we exchange energy and make decisions. This fascinating approach revealed that we have a wonderfully balanced team: 8 Generators 2 Manifesting Generators 1 Projector 1 Manifestor These insights have already started to reshape how we interact, make decisions, and align with our personal and business purpose. A recent McKinsey & Co article highlights the importance of aligning personal purpose with organisational goals to boost productivity. Our session with Charlotte Hill is a testament to this belief. By understanding and leveraging our unique strengths, we are enhancing our ability to deliver outstanding results for our clients. This is a recent Forbes article discussing the momentum building overseas for this work: https://lnkd.in/g7MZfkeN If you fancy yourself as an early adopter and are looking to maximise productivity and foster a cohesive team environment I'd highly recommend a session with Charlotte Hill. With her extensive background in law, media planning, high-performance athlete management, and holistic health, she brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the table. By encouraging our team to bring their whole selves to work, we are not just investing in their well-being, but also in the success of our agency. #HumanDesign #TeamBuilding #Productivity #Empathy #Sustainability #Innovation #Leadership #PersonalGrowth #WholeSelf #FutureOfWork

If you don't intentionally cultivate the right culture, you will end up damaging it unintentionally. Culture is often something we assume just happens on its own. I used to think that way. Back in 2013, I believed that simply doing my job well, celebrating my team's birthdays, and being polite was enough. My current obsession with culture stems from the many mistakes I've made as a leader. Most of those mistakes were due to a lack of awareness and intentionality. I didn’t fully grasp how every action, word, meeting, instruction, comment, and behavior was shaping my team’s culture. I underestimated the long-term impact of those daily interactions on both the employee and guest experience. Looking back now, I see clearly the culture I built in each job—both the positive aspects and the unintended negative ones. I realize how, at times, I was fostering a mindset that ultimately wasn’t aligned with luxury values. One of my biggest mistakes was being so focused on the guest experience that I lost sight of the employee experience. The problem wasn’t just that I overlooked it; my team did too. This led to issues with collaboration, empathy, and care within the team and the organization as a whole. Once I recognized this, I began making the necessary changes. And just as I had unintentionally built a negative culture, I was able to correct it. I learned what it truly takes to create a healthy culture and saw the profound impact it had on both my team and the entire organization. The truth is, it doesn’t take a miracle to fix your culture, nor does it happen by chance. But with intentional design, you’ll start seeing positive changes almost immediately. Wanna know more? Join my Masterclass this Sunday and learn all about Luxury, Customer and Service Culture, all 3 vital to the success of any Luxury organization. DM now to book your spot!

"Do I think Emplify serves a critical purpose? Hell, yes I do." So says Gareth O'Connor, from Something Different, the strategic consultancy practice. Like all good Scotsmen, Gareth is well versed in the art of conversation and afforded me a ringside seat to his experience in the advertising world over the last 20 years. Something Different exists to help organisations find their something different. For Gareth this means unearthing what his clients understand and truly believe in about the customer need they are trying to solve and the value they bring to the table. "This flows into the actions we will always take in delivering what we believe. Once you understand that, everyone starts to see what they need to do to deliver to that and live up to that belief." Gareth observed that some cultures are simply painted on, where values occupy a place on the wall but don't translate into expected behaviours. Cultural drift is also apparent when there is no clear direction between where the company is going and it's not able to be expressed by everyone. This is the domain of leaders but, as Gareth sees it, many are caught in a vicious loop of "busyness". This takes them into the weeds, rather than doing the important work of setting the direction and giving their team members the trust and autonomy to drive the delivery and get the outcome. "Of course, when that happens, you spend all of your time in your business and nothing on your business. And if you weren't part of defining the culture when you came in, then you could very quickly lose sight of that. And without knowing what's happening, your culture has completely changed from what it was to what it is now because you're solely focused on survival, sales, sales, sales. Terrible place to be, but most businesses are there, unfortunately." The time honoured fix is to have an away day, which makes people feel good but it quickly wears off if there's no plan to integrate the behaviours into the business. Rather the culture reverts back to the way it was or slides further. All of this talks to a culture gap, which in Gareth's experience is quite typical, especially within SMEs. This aligns with our analysis. We see three deep-seated problems: 1. An identity deficit, where the direction of the company is not well understood including the critical role of innovation. 2. A measurement deficit, because perceptions of culture are personal to us until such time as we take the time to gain a collective understanding. 3. A behavioural deficit, where the organisation's values are not effectively codified and translated into behavioural expectations. Emplify follows a three-prong system to address each of these pain points. Culture is a living-breathing thing. Staying in balance requires constant care and attention. Gareth was all over this, especially the habit development side of Emplify where recognition and learning turns into action. Big ups for your support Gareth!

Cultures of organisations are formed from many elements; people, character, leaders, history and more. Visually, an organisational brand image does have psycho-social impact on cultural mindsets and helps us as change managers in our work. Images offer us guides for understandings and directions for cultural workplace, mindsets, behaviours, and decision making.

Culture and organisation history are valuable BUT can hold you back…. If you don’t understand them This is an image of traditional artisan folk art isn’t it? No this is an image of contemporary art work by Haegue Yang who is inspired by traditional art work and culture to get us thinking differently about the modern world Change is all about us, political change, energy transition, societal change and for companies and organisation to survive then adapting their services and productions, changing the way they operate is required. What is often forgotton is the history and culture before a change is made. This mistake if often made when change in strategy is made, new people are brought in and nothing changes. What is needed is a real understanding of what drives a company, historically and how has it come about. This means that the cultural and other organisational drivers that will enable the change can be identified as well as those barriers. Lessons can be learned from historically what has worked and what hasn’t as well as grounded the change is something the organisation understands and can relate to. All of this results in change being delivered faster with less effort driving change faster.

“Organisational culture often tells me everything I need to know about how a service area or indeed how a wider organisation performs.” How does the ‘hamster wheel’ stifle innovation in the public sector? Find out in our latest blog https://lnkd.in/eQZMwdG2  #wearecco #consulting #publicsector #changemanagement #transformation #SophieColes  

Did you miss Tim Rhode's compelling talk about progress and growth at the AFFINITY Wellness Alliance's Virtual Forum yesterday? Well, firstly, join the AWA so you don't miss out on future opportunities to connect with some of the world's most accomplished experts in health, fitness and wellness: https://lnkd.in/gVWV9eFr Secondly, get Tim's book, "Changing Lanes for Business:" https://lnkd.in/e895NFAV Here is what you'll learn: All progress requires change. Yet many, if not most people, believe that ‘change is hard’ or scary, and tend to resist, or avoid it altogether if possible. It’s no surprise that nearly 70% of change efforts in business struggle or fail. That’s because many business leaders just don’t have, or follow, a simple and reliable approach to build support and lead successful change. But now, that doesn’t have to be the case. In this transformative fable: Charlie, a talented yet struggling business leader, is feeling frustrated and disheartened by his team’s lackluster performance and frequent inability to reach their goals. Through a chance meeting with an old mentor, he discovers a simple 4 step approach for leading successful change and tries it out to improve his team’s engagement and productivity. Their rapid progress soon leads to a big new challenge and opportunity. Working together, they use the simple approach for Changing Lanes again, taking their team, and this time the entire business, to a new level of rapid and long-term success. In Changing Lanes for Business, Tim shares a relatable story with an easy-to-use approach - that business leaders and teams can apply today - to get unstuck, to overcome challenges, to make rapid progress, and achieve their goals. When you learn and apply the 4 simple steps for Changing Lanes in your own business, you’ll discover that leading successful change doesn’t have to be hard. Grant Gamble, Pele Ramdhani, Edward Curtain, Mel Tempest, Steve Jensen Impact Training, Andrew Nelson, Ben Mann, Jana Gamble, Richard Toutounji #changemanagement #fitnessbusiness #wellnessbusiness #healthbusiness

In a Article by HRZone where Deborah Hartung emphasizes the importance of habits and rituals in shaping a company's culture. While many organizations invest heavily in workshops and strategic planning, true cultural transformation requires consistent action. Habits turn abstract values like collaboration and innovation into daily practices, while rituals add meaning and reinforce those behaviors. Hartung outlines five steps for creating effective habits and rituals: aligning them with company values, keeping them simple, making them fun, using technology for engagement, and tracking progress for improvement. Ultimately, culture is defined not by what is said, but by what is repeatedly done. #habits #rituals #culture #workshops #strategicplanning #collaboration #innovation #companyvalues #technology #employeeengagement #improvement #culturechange #leadership #teamwork #employeeappreciation #workplaceculture #workplacewellness #engagement https://lnkd.in/dKYv_RWj Richa Shah