In case you missed my first edition [1], sent out last week, Daily Thoughts has evolved. Now a new format, rather than daily, I will share with you a weekly focus on key culture change and behavioural science themes. This week I continue with my focus on leadership.
Future issues will cover:
- Behavioural Change – ‘there is no change, unless there is behavioural change’.
- Company Culture – dispelling the myths
- Organizational Design – looking at the future of work
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The Corporate Love Affair with a Thermometer: Employee Engagement Surveys
Here’s a brief snippet of my latest thinking on Employee Engagement and how leadership fits into the conversation. Use the link below to read the full article.
Company culture has suffered a similar set of problems when a reductionistic approach is used: culture equals employee engagement and employee engagement equals the score in the employee survey (because we have thermometers). Here is a bit of a circular definition which is real (I am not making it up): definition of Engagement is whatever you have decided Engagement is and you have decided to measure via an Employee Engagement Survey. In summary, Employee Engagement is whatever the Survey says. And it says it with a number, which is very handy, but it’s time to abandon this.
It’s surprising how, in many areas of the company business, we are used to using a set of parameters to define what is going on – and it’s pointless to focus on employee survey results only, out of context and in isolation from a wide set of ‘cultural parameters.’ The problem is not that any sensible leader would agree with this, but that the same sensible leaders may spend a lot of time ‘on the scores’ just after agreeing that it does not make a lot of sense. Leaders must reflect on their role in culture change, and understand that when it comes to ‘explaining culture,’ the single indicator and the single ‘employee engagement’ does not make sense anymore.
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Leading Culture Change [3] – A conversation between Gert De Winter, CEO of Baloise Group, and Dr Leandro Herrero, CEO of The Chalfont Project.
In this video [3], I talk to Gert De Winter about the challenges and solutions of Viral Change™ in action. We reflect on the role of leaders in culture change and on how Viral Change™ contributes to culture change in Baloise Group.
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For more on Leadership…..
Camino – Leadership Notes on the Road
A collection of notes on leadership, initially written as Daily Thoughts. Camino, reflects on leadership as a praxis that continuously evolves.