About a year ago, I MC’ed an event by e3unlimited, a company focused on getting the most out of generation y. Bruce Morton and Emma Reynolds, the founders of e3, have now moved on (Bruce to Sydney and Emma to Hong Kong). But this past week they were back in town to do some work with talent2. Another of our partners, Filip Matous of Enviable Workplace, managed to catch a few minutes with Bruce and recorded a very informative interview with him.
You can watch the video and read some of the insights here.
The best bit for me is Bruce’s suggestion for the best way to open discussion with your employees to see how good your company employee engagement is. Just ask one question: “How easy do I make it for you to do great work?” In Bruce’s experience, managers are often shocked at the answers; usually organisations just get in the way of great work.
I like it. Ask this of your employees and colleagues this coming week. And listen to the answers!
In the 1996 The Mirror Has Two Faces Gregory Larkin (played by Jeff Bridges) says of Rose Morgan (Barbra Streisand), “But I love the old Rose! The one with no make-up and baggy clothes; who loves ‘the perfect bite’! She eats carrots now, isn’t that tragic?”
Like ‘the perfect bite’, are we not all in search of “the perfect question”. This one comes close, doesn’t it?
Raymond, wow… that was the long way around to make a great point 🙂 (Nice pop culture reference, though – extra points for you!)
Here are seven more brilliant questions brave managers can ask their direct reports: http://drivingresultsthroughculture.com/?p=601
Graeme, thanks for post. Out of the 7 Q’s I think this one really connects: “What was the best day at work you’ve had in the past three months? What were you doing?” – I like it more than the others because it is specific and will get a detailed response that is directly applicable.
What about:
What would you do if you were not afraid?
Who do you want to be at the end of today?
Where is your attention right now?
Gallup’s 12 Questions (The Q12) are also a great dipstick measurement for employee engagement. The link is to their site. Google / Bing to get the actual questions.