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Who we are
Ember Experience is a values-based company that was sparked by the principle of prioritizing people. Prioritizing people means ensuring a comprehensive and integrated approach to your worker's health, safety and well-being that not only protects physical and psychological health but enhances it. It means embracing diversity, equality, and inclusion to encourage innovation. Through vulnerability, compassion, and open communication, we challenge ourselves and our clients to acknowledge each of our own values and work towards aligning our beliefs with our lifestyles. When we understand the importance of living a values-based lifestyle, we can connect our personal values to our company values. Our experience is meant to produce transformational change that ultimately strengthens our human connection and amplifies our team energy.
Why we’re here:
Our values are our compass. They represent the organization's core beliefs and keep us accountable to doing the right thing, even when it feels uncomfortable. Without accountability to our values, it is likely that disconnects can develop between individuals, teams, or leadership, and spread across the culture. Having hard conversations about the root of our disconnection is crucial to alignment. It is easy to become disconnected between what we say and do, and how each of us experiences the interactions we have with each other every day.
We aim to redefine the ways in which we live our values. The importance of practising values through day-to-day action is crucial to developing inspiration and impact in the workplace. By working through misunderstandings, incivility, conflict, or disconnect, we have created an experience that allows everyone to feel seen. heard, and valued in the workspace. The space we create allows our team to show up authentically, address unresolved conflict, and accept two-way accountability. Through this lived experience, we can create a similar dynamic for our clients.
Reframing power.
Leaders are here to walk with the staff. Rather than expecting staff to amplify the person in power, we should look at our leaders as the best representation of our people. A person’s job in leadership is to role model their values, amplify their team, role model the company’s values, and foster accountability throughout the organization. It means leading by example, which results in developing reciprocal respect and authentic bonds with staff members. Leaders are ultimately meant for support, guidance, and structure rather than markers of power. Being aware of one’s wake, or the impact of our words and actions, is critical to reaching clarity and valuing the differences between each other.
Reigniting accountability.
Trust is built in small moments when we show up for each other. Where accountability is breached, trust can be eroded. Redefining what accountability looks like in the workplace requires a thoughtful and intentional approach. Ember aims to reshape accountability in the workplace, using a two-way accountability approach where all employees are accountable for their words and actions. We encourage all staff regardless of position, title, or status to hold one another accountable. Feedback is one of the most integral actions we can take as a part of creating an accountable culture. Learning how to effectively give and receive feedback with care and honesty can promote growth and understanding, rather than shame and judgment.
Giving and receiving feedback is a skill set that requires practice and emotional awareness. Here are some tips:
Before starting, assess your personal readiness to sit in the conversation with an open mind.
Choose a time that works for both parties.
Stay present and avoid getting defensive.
Take responsibility for our own experience and validate that others may feel differently.
Hold space for discomfort, and give it a seat at the table.
Lead with trust and assume positive intent.
Focus on the behaviour, not the person.
Choose your words intentionally and literally.
Find common ground and shared goals (i.e., resolution, validation, action).
Give space to process feedback and commit to following up.
Reconnecting to people.
This is the core of what drives us. This is a human-centred approach that challenges us to consider our people, not only when it is easy or comfortable for us to do so. Traditionally, productivity has been built out of the industrial revolution and directly relates to money, materials, and the sweat of working people. But ultimately, a safe and healthy environment for your people is what drives productivity and profits. We can achieve this by putting our people at the heart of the structures and systems we are creating in the workplace. We have learned that time-building trust and connection does not always equal traditional output in the short term. It may even feel disruptive at first. The trust we build is not used to control others, but to deepen our connection and commitment to our purpose, which boosts morale, and motivates our team toward achieving fulfillment and understanding. We can reframe how productivity is measured by how valued our people feel when they show up to work with us.
Take away
Join us on this journey as we navigate poignant topics that are the underlying embers of the employee experience and current workplace culture. Through this blog we will explore evolving leadership, mindset, psychological safety, mental health, wellbeing, incivility, conflict, inclusion, diversity, and equity.
(https://www.bsigroup.com/en-GB/topics/prioritizing-people/#:~:text=Prioritizing%20people%20means%20ensuring%20a,and%20inclusion%20to%20encourage%20innovation.)