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Transformational Leadership in the Coming Decade: A Response to Three Major Workplace Trends

When thinking of model places for workplace perks, the successful startups of Silicon Valley undoubtedly come to mind. And while heavy-hitters such as Google and Facebook are famous for their jaw-dropping employee amenities, up-and-coming mid-level companies are also getting in on the act. Mashable took a tour of Zynga, a wildly popular distributor of some of the most played social and mobile games. When it comes to perks, the father of FarmVille doesn't skimp. In fact, Zynga's office is so loaded with perks and amenities, it would make working from home a bore. Here are some of the highlights we encountered:

Building a successful business means creating something that is "slightly more than a business and slightly less than a religion," says my friend and mentor Greig Clark. Many things help build a world-class work environment: creating a great physical space, cultivating a thriving social environment, instilling a sense of ownership in each employee.

Now that more than 100,000 employees across 44 countries participate as community members, TIP is truly driving a new culture of innovation at AT&T as we transform into a technology company. TIP is one of several ways we are increasing the velocity of innovation and bringing new apps, products and services to customers faster than ever before.

You need a top-notch team to do your best work--but you need to hire them first. Here's half a dozen common ways managers shoot themselves in the human-resources foot.

What not to do...

5 Keys To Building A Business That Doesn't Bury The Humans At Its Core

good to great

About five months ago, I joined Big Spaceship after stints at Saatchi & Saatchi NY, McCann Sydney and Leo Burnett. Prior to those agencies, I worked in a dot-com, in independent digital agencies as well as digital departments inside multinational ad agencies, and I'd run my own magazine. I've lived in thriving cultures, incredibly toxic cultures, and some in-between. Each experience has left a bit of itself in me, but having moved to New York last year, my observations about culture intensified - not only was I was moving to a new country, I was moving into a new business culture.

Deutsch, working in conjunction with the 4As, surveys ad people and discovers a full 25 percent of them don't love the business they're in. How do you get people to fall back in love with the industry and commit to their agencies for the long run? Create a more entrepreneurial culture, says Deutsch CEO Mike Sheldon.

People thrive when exposed to the outdoors. But most offices can't offer employees beautiful vistas of streams and fields. Sky Factory's video screens give office drones a little taste of the outside world, and potentially makes them happier and more productive in the process.

Do you have an employee who goes through the motions of her job? Does she lack inspiration for her work and your clients? Is she motivated by completing a checklist and then collecting a paycheck? If yes, her lack of enthusiasm may be slowing down the rest of your team.

Paid Vacation? That's Not Cool. You Know What's Cool? Paid, PAID Vacation.

"1. Data comes and goes, but feelings last forever. Facts and figures are important. Explaining the logic and reasoning behind a decision can help create buy-in and commitment. Charts, graphs, tables, results, etc., are useful--and quickly forgotten. But make an employee feel stupid or embarrass him in front of other people and he will never forget. An employee made a comment in a meeting, and I instinctively fired off a sarcastic comeback. (For a long time, I was like a sarcastic-comment sniper, who figured that if I had the witty shot, I should always take it.) Everyone laughed but him. And our working relationship changed forever. I apologized on the spot and apologized again later, but the damage was already done. Spend twice the time thinking about how employees will feel than you do thinking about data and logic. Correcting a data mistake is easy. Overcoming damage you cause--whether intentional or not--to an employee's self-esteem is impossible. 2. Great ideas are never found in presentations. Presentations are a great way to share detailed and complex information. Presentations are a terrible way to share great ideas. After I drank too deeply from the Six Sigma Kool-Aid, I started interrupting employees who came to me with ideas by telling them to "put something together." Some would: Then we'd whip out our multicolored belts and talk intelligently about their data, their analysis techniques, their conclusions... Ugh. Most wouldn't bother. Looking back, I don't blame them. Great ideas can be captured in one or two sentences. Your employees have those ideas. All you have to do is listen. And your employees will love you for listening, because I guarantee people they used to work for never did. 3. The "volunteer penalty" kills the flow of great ideas. Your best employees tend to come up with the best ideas. It's natural to assign responsibility for carrying out an idea to the person who came up with the idea. Plus, if that person is a great employ

How can CEOs learn from Kodak's failure? Historically, Kodak was built on a culture of innovation and change. It's the type of culture that's full of passionate innovators, already naturally in tune to the urgency surrounding changes in the market and technology. It's these people - those excited about new ideas within your own organization - who keep your company moving ahead instead of falling behind. One key to avoiding complacency is to ensure these innovators have a voice with enough volume to be heard (and listened to) at the top. It's these voices that can continue to keep a sense of urgency in your organization. If they are given the power to lead, they will continue to innovate, help keep a culture of urgency and affect change.

When it comes to lunch breaks, the laissez-faire French like to take two hours out of their workday to savor their food in the company of colleagues while workaholic Americans prefer dining solo in front of their computers. Well, in Sweden we have a whole other vibe going. Here, more and more workers are foregoing both leisurely lunches and "al-desko" dining in favor of daytime raves.

For the first time in three years, Google employees are happier than Facebook employees. That's quite a switch from a couple years ago, when it seemed like Google employees were defecting for Facebook in droves. The stats come Glassdoor, where employees post mostly anonymous opinions of their bosses and employers.

In The Cafeteria, Google Gets Healthy Companies spend a lot of time finding ways to cut energy costs and increase recycling. Here's how the tech giant is working to better manage another resource: the health of its staff. BY CLIFF KUANG | MARCH 19, 2012 Much has changed since Google earned a reputation for fattening its staffers with food on demand. These days, the company is focused on advancing its healthy-eating initiatives. Explains Jennifer Kurkoski, who has a PhD in organizational behavior and runs a division of Google's HR department called People Analytics, "When employees are healthy, they're happy. When they're happy, they're innovative." In pursuit of that healthiness, happiness, and innovation, Google has turned to "nudges": simple, subtle cues that prompt people to make better decisions. Behavioral economists have shown the idea works, but Google has taken it out of the lab and into the lunchroom. This is a sampling of the encouragement you'd get during trips through the company's eateries--and naturally, Google is measuring the results. 1 HARD CANDY No longer are M&Ms in clear hanging dispensers. If you're in Google's New York office, you now have to reach into opaque bins. The grab takes effort; the obscuring vessel quells enticement. The switch led to a 9% drop in caloric intake from candy in just one week. 2 SALAD GAZE Waiting for you as you enter the cafeteria is the salad bar. According to Jessica Wisdom, a member of the People Analytics team, studies show that people tend to fill their plates with whatever they see first. Thus, leafy greens get the most visible real estate. Desserts, meanwhile, are down another line of sight. 3 SIZING DOWN While grabbing a plate to load up on grub, you see a sign informing you that people with bigger dishes are inclined to eat more. It doesn't tell you what to do, but it affects your behavior. This simple "meta nudge" caused small-plate usage to increase by half, to 32% of all plate traffic. 4 COLORING OPINI

inspiration :)