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Innovative, high-performing workplace cultures enable business success. This article uses interviews with executives, researchers and authors to identify obstacles, enablers and solutions for workplace culture. Key obstacles to healthy workplace culture include poor leadership, employees’ selfish ambitions, and years of ingrained culture. Enablers of winning culture include employees believing firm success to be related to their own success, as well as open dialogue between leaders and employees. Leaders should define and share a clear picture of what the desired workplace should look like. They should also establish trust and embrace management training, while aligning culture, goals and performance. As this article explains, CEOs should understand the existing workplace culture and evaluate the tolerance for change; create a clear, shared vision of what they want the new culture to look like; be honest about why they are changing the culture, and about their own leadership abilities; take care of their team and ensure that team members feel connected; and build a strong management system and framework.

Canada ranks 17th out of 24 OECD countries on productivity. Many consider productivity to mean “working harder for less pay,” but a more accurate definition would be “output per hour of work” or “combined output from labour and capital.” General disinterest in and misunderstanding about productivity impedes necessary actions being taken to fix Canada’s looming crisis. As this article explains, reasons for Canada’s productivity deficit include its abundance of small businesses, which generally invest less in R&D; Canadian governmental and private-sector under-investment in information technology; unfavourable taxation; and inertia due to unions’ demands. Yet there are various opportunities for Canada to boost productivity, including implementing more government policy that addresses barriers to competition and growth and promotes technology and education investment; researching opportunities in the private sector and applying them in the public sector; and investing in teams, processes, and equipment. This article, based on interviews with business executives who have overseen significant change, finishes by detailing various enablers of productivity, including technology investment; strategic leadership; better workplace cultures with a stronger sense of teamwork and increased training; and an entrepreneurial mindset.

There has long been discussion about the need for more innovation in Canada. This article uses interviews with business and education leaders and summarizes the obstacles to innovation, including a risk-averse culture and lack of cross-sector collaboration, and the enablers of innovation, such as creating a culture of innovation. Recommendations for advancing innovation in Canada are synthesized under the categories of awareness, intent, and actions.

Engagement, enthusiasm and excellence are the hallmarks of a performance culture. Following these authors' advice will put managers on the road to creating that culture. Creating a performance culture requires a systematic approach to managing the performance of organizations, teams and individuals. While leadership and discipline are the defining elements of that approach, they are not the only elements. These authors outline a road map for changing organizational behaviour and, ultimately, for implementing, promoting and sustaining a high-performance culture.