Combat Burnout by Refocusing on Workplace Culture

Unleashing the Power of "Culture by Design" to Combat Burnout

Burnout is a real thing. In the pandemic, our public health, health care, first responders, educators, and MORE worked such long hours, under challenging conditions that burnout became the norm. Burnout is real in almost every industry and we get requests all the time to bring some relief.

At WorkFULL Wonders, while we like to spread some joy, we can’t actually insist that people feel less burned out or more joyful. We don’t think band-aid solutions last long enough anyway. What we can do is help you redesign a workplace culture that aligns expectations with what is feasible, that creates supportive conditions that take into consideration how staff members are feeling and provides a way forward that in effect helps restore hope for fun, engaging and purposeful days ahead. Addressing burnout requires more than a superficial fix; it necessitates a deep dive into the roots of organizational culture.

Burnout is really just a late phase in a repetitive cycle that needs interrupting. The key to bringing relief from burnout is to provide believable reassurance that the cycle will not continue as is and instead new supports are being put in place to PREVENT future burnout. When staff are continuously burdened, asked to do more with less and not provided with adequate supports it’s not acceptable to then ask them to find their own way out of burnout.

1. Acknowledge and Validate

When staff feel burned out it’s not business as usual. Emotions can escalate quickly, mistakes are more likely to happen, and turnover becomes a real risk. The very first thing to do is for leadership to say out loud that burnout is happening. Saying it a few times in different ways… acknowledging the reality is an important first step. Quickly shifting to validating different staff members’ feelings and perceptions about burnout is imperative. Everyone experiences it differently, the contributors vary, and people have different preferences around expression for both what they are experiencing and what they need to for things to feel better.

2. Appreciate Resilience

Leadership and peers among staff should try to highlight examples of resiliency in each other while navigating burnout. Every single contributing member on staff is doing something positive to keep on keeping on. Be sure to show appreciation for these efforts, especially when they are focused on lifting others up in hard times.

3. Peel Back Layers

Taking some dedicated time to facilitate discussions about the contributing factors that have led to burnout is helpful. This is not to assume that there are easy solutions available for each factor, but the actual process of discussion is valuable as it creates collective understanding of the main issues. It also allows for people to hear others’ points of view thereby deepening their understanding and preparing them to enter the next step with empathy.

4. Redesign

The most important element in redesign is not skipping or moving too fast through the first three steps. Seriously, a lot of groups will jump to the brainstorm stage a little too quickly without doing the critical exploration and reflection that is the pre-work to redesign in meaningful and lasting ways.

As you look for ways to bring immediate relief and long-term improvements remember that burnout is a late-stage result of a cycle of challenges that have been on repeat. Consider where tweaks or improvements at each point could interrupt cycles that are not serving anyone well. Stop the bleeding first… then look for alternatives.

5. Iterate

Try a few things that may help. Be skeptical, almost aloof. Experiment and make a lot of space for reflection and learning. If it doesn’t work- no big deal… if there is learning it was valuable. Your redesign will most likely be more successful at banishing burn out if it goes through a few iterations.

So, you may be wondering- is there a supportive facilitative process that can help? Enter "Culture by Design," a transformative program for workplace groups tailored to create a supportive and intentionally designed culture within your organization. One of our core objectives is to alleviate burnout among staff, proactively prevent re-occurrence and ensure it doesn't resurface.

Let's explore how this program can revolutionize your workplace and pave the way for a resilient, engaged, and energetically productive workforce. Send us an email at hello@workfullwonders.com and tell us if burnout is an issue where you work.