“West Michigan Nice”

“West Michigan Nice” is this strange cultural loophole around issues where you can’t seem to get full honesty from your closest neighbor, your coworker, and sometimes even your family.”

Our culture of wanting to please people and avoid disruption is spilling into the workplace, which makes understanding the true condition of our companies nearly impossible.

How can we move forward on issues when our colleagues won’t convey the problem? How can we improve when someone is skirting the truth instead of sharing it? How can we expect our employees to share how they really feel, when leadership lacks transparency themselves?

“West Michigan Nice” Can Cost You

I can speak to “West Michigan Nice” as I have lived here most of my life, and I must say, there is something “Nice” about West Michigan. I can say this because I have also lived in other areas, Las Vegas, Chicago, and Northern Indiana, and comparably, they are not as “Nice.”

What do I mean by this? What is the fuss behind this article? Being nice is civil, relatively peaceful, and most importantly, it’s not disruptive. However, where I have seen West Michigan Nice hurt our community most is in the workplace, specifically with leadership teams. And here is my major concern: it can cost your company thousands if not millions.

To Beat a Bad Culture, Implement a New One

Prior to becoming my client, a leadership team member of a manufacturing company asked me, “Ken, what is the most difficult thing to implement into companies?”

I replied without hesitation: “An open and honest culture.”

This is true across the spectrum. Without a doubt, the most difficult and essential piece to implement into companies is getting leadership teams to be open and honest with each other.