Ping-pong tables won’t save your office – but these 10 things will

Many years ago, we had a ping-pong table in our office. At the time we thought it was the coolest perk in the world – a way for employees to play and let off steam most afternoons.

It now feels like a quaint inclusion, especially when modern workplaces spend big dollars on ways to engage their staff, from overseas meet-ups to long lunches, on-site wellness centres to ergonomic workstations.

However, none of that matters if you don’t have a healthy work environment in the first place. Instead of throwing money at the problem, here are 10 small, repeatable behaviours that anyone can do to improve their workplace right now, without waiting for the ping pong table to arrive.

1. Swap meetings for walks. The next time you have a one-on-one meeting with a colleague that doesn’t require a screen, suggest that you take it outside. Walk around the block, or to the closest park, and you’ll have better conversations and get more exercise than spending yet another meeting staring at the blank office wall.

2. Give credit where it’s due. The simplest way of showing appreciation is by acknowledging it in public. When someone does something that’s worth praising, say it out loud, on the spot, ideally to their face. Extra points if you also voice it in an all-staff meeting, or on a group email, so everyone can see.

3. Ask more questions than you answer. The smartest person in the room is the most curious. When you ask questions with an open mind, you’re ensuring you properly understand what’s going on. You never want to be the person who just talks over everyone, so listen more than you speak.

Any one of these can save you money, time, pain and heartache if you incorporate them into your everyday working life.

4. Treat mistakes as learning opportunities. Everyone stuffs up, but it’s what you do next that sets the cultural tone. When you weaponise mistakes so that people are too scared to fail, you’re creating a toxic work environment. Think of every error as a way of improving the process so that it’s even better the next time.

5. Set expectations and meet them. The simplest definition of trust is what happens when you set clear expectations and meet them. In the workplace, tell your colleagues what you’re going to do, and then do it. That builds trust over the long term, one of the key components of a healthy working environment.

6. When in doubt, over-communicate. Work is a team sport, and you should include as many people as possible in the successes that you can. One way to do that is to over-communicate – not by CCing the world on every email, but by bringing people along so they understand the why behind your actions.

7. Treat leave as leave. When someone’s out of the office, let them be out of the office. It doesn’t matter whether it’s sickness, bereavement, maternity or annual leave, give people the mental space to not think about work when they’re not there.

8. End every meeting with an action. We’ve all been in meetings that last forever and then end with nothing much to show for it. Close out every single meeting with at least one action item, then write it down to ensure it’s followed up on.

9. Make generous assumptions. Of course, you can be wary of other people’s motivations, but what might happen if you made “generous assumptions” instead? These are the beliefs that someone is acting with good intentions instead of automatically assuming they are not. It can really change how you think about everyone around you.

10. Give good handovers. The difference between success and failure in a project is often the quality of the handover. This means fully explaining the progress of where things are at – both good and bad – every time you move roles, go on leave, or finish up at a job.

Any one of these can save you money, time, pain and heartache if you incorporate them into your everyday working life. Recognition, feedback and productive workplaces are linked with higher engagement, retention, and healthier teams.

These simple habits don’t cost a cent, but they are really worth their weight in gold.

Tim Duggan’s new book, Clear in Tension: How to get better at conflict, is out now from www.clearintension.com.au.

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Tim Duggan is an author, founder and optimist. He co-founded Junkee Media, is the Chair of the Digital Publishers Alliance and writes the monthly newsletter, OUTLET (One Useful Thing Literally Every Time).