What is the problem with a "go-do" attitude in the workplace?

A "go-do" attitude treats employees as programmable resources, which stifles passion, innovation, and the emergence of "Maverick Thinking" that spurs development.

How does communicating a "grand vision" inspire employees?

Selling employees on a compelling vision rather than just a paycheck gives their work meaning. A leader provides the destination and empowers the team to find the way, turning an intangible idea into a reality.

Why is it important for a company to encourage failure?

Encouraging failure inspires courage and "Maverick Thinking." It creates a safe environment for experimentation and innovation, similar to the culture found in highly successful startups.

What are the benefits of becoming a learning organization?

By encouraging employees to learn and grow their skills, a company can boost their confidence, galvanize loyalty, and see an immediate application of new knowledge to business challenges.

Internal Thought Leadership: 4 Ways to Inspire Your Team

'''## Moving Beyond a "Go-Do" Culture

Many companies operate with a "go-do" mentality, viewing employees as programmable resources to be managed for maximum efficiency. While this approach has roots in traditional operations management, it falls short in the real world. To unlock the highest potential of your workforce, leaders must inspire a learning atmosphere where employees feel passionate about their work. This shift leads to better results, lower turnover, and the emergence of "Maverick Thinking" that spurs genuine innovation.

Cultivating a workplace full of passion and drive requires a daily, organization-wide commitment. These four strategies can help trigger and sustain this positive momentum.

1. Communicate the Grand Vision

To truly motivate people, sell them on a compelling vision, not just a paycheck. Great visionary leaders excel at articulating a destination, but they need inspired partners to build the path to get there. The classic example is Steve Jobs, the visionary, and Steve Wozniak, the technical genius who made the vision a viable product.

A leader's role is to conceive the destination and keep that vision alive. However, a vision without a practical means of execution leads to inefficiency and discouragement, causing even the brightest talent to lose inspiration. A destination is useless without a map to get there.

2. Cultivate an Atmosphere of Learning

An old management joke highlights a crucial truth:

CFO: "What happens if we train them and they leave?"
CEO: "What happens if we don’t and they stay?"

Becoming a learning organization is essential. Companies with the highest employee satisfaction, like Salesforce, often have robust professional development programs. Providing employees with resources to learn and grow boosts their confidence, galvanizes their loyalty, and directly benefits the organization. As employees acquire new skills, they immediately begin applying them to the business challenges they face every day.

3. Set a Standard of Excellence

Organizations should strive to attract and develop talent that embodies a standard of excellence. Dr. Mehmood Khan, Chief Scientific Officer of PepsiCo, established a "go-to" rather than "go-do" culture within his R&D organization. Instead of waiting for top-down direction, which paralyzes traditional R&D teams, his employees are empowered to do the work that needs to be done.

This culture of self-sufficiency makes an organization more agile and able to meet market objectives quickly. Dr. Khan’s leadership in fostering this environment has led to breakthrough innovations, helping PepsiCo maintain its edge in a fiercely competitive industry.

4. Encourage Intelligent Failure

While it may sound counterintuitive, encouraging failure is critical for inspiring courage and Maverick Thinking. Startups, which often experience failure multiple times a day, are hotspots of passionate, intelligent talent. This is why many Fortune 500 companies are emulating them by developing internal innovation labs and entrepreneurship programs.

For example, Visa Inc. opened a large innovation center in San Francisco to motivate its employees and attract new tech talent. In an industry facing disruption from fintech startups, creating a space for internal innovation is a strategic imperative. The rise of the Chief Innovation Officer (CINO) role in the C-suite signals a broader recognition that giving Maverick-caliber employees room to experiment and fail is essential for future success. '''

Best Practice Institute

Best Practice Institute is the research organization behind Most Loved Workplace® certification, the SPARK Model, the Love of Workplace Index™ (LOWI™), and The Workplace Report.

The Workplace Report

The Workplace Report is BPI's original workplace culture research and editorial briefing series for CEOs, CHROs, people leaders, talent leaders, and employer-brand teams. It turns BPI's 25 years of research, Most Loved Workplace® certification data, SPARK findings, and current workforce signals into practical analysis leaders can use.

The report format includes executive summaries, research-backed articles, company examples, methodology notes, and practical implications for retention, hiring, culture, leadership, and employee experience. New research and analysis is published on an ongoing editorial cadence at /workplace-report.

Generating Amazing Spirit and Internal Thought Leadership in the Workplace