Designing a Culture of Engagement During the Pandemic (Part Two)
In the first part of this series we covered how the concept of engagement specifically affects The Employee. The unanswered question was then, “how do you turn a passive observer into an active participant and member of the team?”, which we will address from the perspective of leadership.
The Manager
As a people leader the responsibilities of maintaining high morale and team engagement are more paramount than ever before. This has called for leaders to develop creative ideas of how to best manage their teams in a hybrid work environment. With most work, meetings or workshops now being held virtually there are a few guidelines you as a leader can utilise when in a collaborative environment:
1. You have to create participatory methods to promote accountability. In a scenario where it’s a meeting to brainstorm ideas for a particular scope of work, as opposed to being present as the leader, you can delegate and provide guidance to a team member to coordinate the meeting whilst ensuring that the rest of the team contributes. The rules of conduct as well as the outcome expectations should be clearly defined and communicated so there is shared understanding
2. Teams or groups have formal and informal cultural norms they observe as a collective that are in most cases unwritten (more so in the virtual work frame). They dictate what’s acceptable in the team or group;
o During Zoom meetings is it okay to turn off your camera? Are team weekly catch-up meetings concerning on-going work mandatory, to uphold team transparency? Is it okay to have quiet or slow days at work? Is it okay to acknowledge when you don’t understand a process? To promote inclusivity and reinforce a feeling of belonging a good practice would be to set time aside for you and your team to write a list clarifying expected behaviours. This presents an opportunity to open up suggestions on some rituals that the team would want to add or remove
o Fundamental changes may be required, incorporating behavioural shifts such as pre-event preparation (make that an informal norm that needs to be written down as a rule) so when in the event you have an opportunity to discuss the content — an agenda
3. When running virtual meetings, workshops or presentations:
o Practice randomising breakout-rooms (applicable when using Zoom) to allow for different members of the team to engage with each other, preferably in small groups
o Don’t record them with the intention of making them available for replay, or neither should you provide handouts. Not doing so will drive employees to not only want to attend, but also be present
o You can utilise check-in devices to monitor levels of engagement. Whether it’s by using the chat function, or asking a question and getting all participants to respond, in some cases reading out the answers crediting people by name. This makes the individual feel invested, but also serves as a note to everyone else that they are not just random or prepared answers. You can also use open-ended questions to encourage participation
o To establish a connection and also allow for involvement of the participants, you need to create practices that encourage vulnerability. This can be through asking each individual at the start the reason of their attendance, what they are hoping to achieve, or by urging each person to pause, be mindful and present at the start to rid of any residual memory from any previous tasks they were undertaking
o At the end of each workshop, you should offer moments of reflection and feedback of the content or product covered or the process of how the workshop was run. In the case of a meeting, you can end by a call-to-action to round up
o Jenny Sauer-Klein suggests ending with a moment of connection. An exercise she calls “the one-word whip” allows for an individual to take deep breaths and then state one word to explain what they are feeling, express gratitude, and an acknowledgement of something or someone within the workshop/meeting
4. Reduce the amount of one-way communication mediums such as webinars or town halls. As these platforms are oriented as monologues, they limit opportunities of engagement from the audience
Is there more? To implement a change to an optimal culture requires utilising the internal levers of change, which thus far have been The Employee and The Manager. While I still have your attention, I’ll conclude this series on engagement by looking through the holistic lens of The Organisation.
