five questions you must ask your team

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  • 7/28/2019 Five Questions You Must Ask Your Team

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    employees are watching them, wondering if this is just another one-time survey or if this is a

    long-term process that will finally identify and correct problems that need to be fixed.

    That's why so many well-meaning managers jump right in to interpreting numbers from a

    report, often choosing areas of focus without involving their teams or considering business

    outcomes. So when managers complain that their team hasn't bought in to their plan, I ask aquestion of my own: "Whose plan was it?" Usually, the response is something along the lines

    of, "Well, it was mine."

    Top-down solutions may produce clarity, but they don't inspire buy-in or practicality. That's

    because top-down decision making about engagement fails to recognize the varying

    dynamics among workgroups. More importantly, it misses an opportunity to engage teams in

    creating and "owning" their own solutions.

    Engagement is a process

    Engagement should be treated as a process, not a one-time event; it is an indicator of aworkgroup's fitness, not a stand-alone outcome. Engagement also requires intentionality and

    a scalable structure. Managers and employees need to be involved in the action-planning

    process, and the process must be replicable. But too many managers approach building

    engagement as they would choosing a cellphone carrier: They consider the variables, make a

    decision, and move on until the contract expires, neglecting to seek feedback from peoplewho have actually experienced the carrier's service.

    I've listened to the difficulties managers face trying to create meaningful action plans, and

    I've heard everything from excuses like "We don't have time for this" to legitimate concerns

    such as "It's tough because my team is located in five different sites across three time zones."

    Through conversations like these, I've found that the following five questions are a practical

    approach for thinking and talking about engagement. They also ensure maximum

    participation, practicality, intentionality, and scale. I have asked managers these questions

    many times, and I recommend that managers use them with their teams immediately before

    sharing their Q12 survey results. For many managers and teams, they have become an

    essential part of the action-planning process.

    Question one: How do we define each of the Q12

    items in our workgroup? For example,

    how do we define "materials and equipment" for our team?

    Gallup's Q12 is a 12-item measure of employee engagement, and each item addresses a

    specific element of engagement. These items include statements such as "I know what is

    expected of me at work," "I have the materials and equipment I need to do my work right,"

    and "My associates or fellow employees are committed to doing quality work."(See sidebar

    "The 12 Elements of Great Managing.")

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    Individual workgroups have different cultures and needs, so they should discuss what they

    think about each element of engagement. The temptation here is for companies to define what

    Q12 items mean in the organization. But a better approach is for managers to ask their teams

    how each specific item applies to the realities of their particular workgroup. Managers should

    ask their team this question, then pay close attention to what emerges from the discussion.

    For example, I consulted with a large technology company that had recently experienced a

    round of budget cuts, and travel had been frozen. Their remote workers were most likely to

    cite videoconferencing when defining the materials and equipment most important to them.

    Most managers weren't surprised by this, but they varied widely in how they responded to

    this feedback. Predictably, managers who dismissed videoconferencing as too expensive or as

    outside the realm of their control were those with the lowest levels of engagement relative to

    their peers.

    Question two: Now that we defined each of the Q12

    items for our workgroup, what

    would the ideal look like for each item?

    Making engagement happen isn't just a manager's responsibility.

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    Question one: How do we define each of the Q items in our workgroup? Forexample, how do we define "materials and equipment" for our team?

    Question two: Now that we defined each of the Q12 items for our workgroup,what would the ideal look like for each item?

    Question three: What is the difference between where we are now and thatideal?

    Question four: As we think about our action plan, which items have thegreatest impact on our culture or performance?

    Question five: What is every person on the team willing to do aboutengagement?

    12>

    Question two: Now that we defined each of the Q

    12

    items for our workgroup, whatwould the ideal look like for each item?

    Making engagement happen isn't just a manager's responsibility.

    Sometimes, I'll encourage managers to dream a little with their teams. If budgets didn't exist,

    for example, what would the ideal materials and equipment be for their team? Often, the

    answers are surprisingly mundane -- workgroups rarely want what's impossible, even when

    the sky's the limit.

    Many managers are hesitant to have this discussion with their workers, citing that it might

    create false expectations or set an impossible standard. This hesitation, however, isunfounded. The purpose is not to for the team members to say, "If we havex, we'd rate this

    item a 5." Instead, the purpose is to establish aspiration and ownership, empowering the team

    to consider what their efforts might achieve and creating a benchmark to which the team can

    aspire.

    For example, despite the budget realities that many teams face, many of the managers I talk

    with have generated new ideas for remaining connected using existing materials and

    equipment, such as emailing a "question of the day" about the company to members of their

    teams or using videoconferencing in addition to conference calls to create face-to-face

    connections. When the teams dreamed a little, they often found they already had the materials

    and equipment they needed to solve the problem.

    Question three: What is the difference between where we are now and that ideal?

    Having established what the ideal looks like, the team can take the bold step of asking how

    far away from it they are. This process affords opportunity for celebration, building on

    previous successes, and establishing best practices. It also promotes candid discussion and

    creates an environment where team members can share and support their views. This helps

    teams grow and mature and gives everyone a chance to claim responsibility for areas that

    might lie within their control.

    After we talked about how to use these questions, one manager conducted his action-planning

    meeting and reported back. "I told the team where I thought I'd been getting in the way and

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    admitted some mistakes I'd made over the last few months," he said. "It was hard, but I think

    the team appreciated it." This kind of transparency builds goodwill and creates a platform for

    more open dialogue.

    Question four: As we think about our action plan, which items have the greatest impact

    on our culture or performance?

    Engagement must be tied to performance because it benefits businesses in tangible ways.

    Otherwise, the exercise and conversation are pointless, and employees will rightly wonder

    why they must participate in activities that have no real purpose or practical utility. Again,

    measuring engagement shouldn't be an end in itself.

    Making engagement happen isn't just a manager's responsibility. As employees identify

    aspects of culture and performance that would benefit from increases in engagement, they

    begin to think in solution-oriented ways. They begin to own the culture, their performance,

    and their own engagement.

    This question also grants vital permission to take the discussion further. Managers and teams

    start asking themselves more questions, such as: "Is it OK to prioritize some items and defer

    others based on the team's stated objectives?" and "What items are most likely to drive those

    objectives?"

    As I debriefed with a manager after a recent action-planning session, he told me that the team

    had chosen to focus on the item "My associates or fellow employees are committed to doing

    quality work." They chose this item because their team both depended on and served internal

    customers, and they thought that improving in this area would shorten wait times for their

    stakeholders and improve their internal brand, which had suffered recently.

    It's neither advisable nor desirable to include every item in an action plan. It's far better to

    focus on the items that will bring the greatest return on invested time and effort at a particular

    time, because the team's needs and circumstances will change. Every element of engagement

    is important and links to key business outcomes. But using this question to narrow the focus

    to a few key items will reveal what is important for the workgroup now.

    Question five: What is every person on the team willing to do about engagement?

    Too many companies treat engagement like an a la carte menu from which the manager

    chooses everything. If an engagement process results in open dialogue among the teammembers and the team identifies expected outcomes and areas in which to invest, yet the

    manager is the only person who leaves the meeting with a to-do list, then action planning has

    failed.

    A good action-planning meeting is one in which every attendee leaves with a next step. Each

    member of the team must contribute and have a role to play. People are more eager to invest

    in ideas they helped generate than those initiated from the top down.

    In addition to creating accountability, this question also enables the team to decide that some

    ideas, though compelling, have too many barriers to implement immediately, while others

    present more positively. For example, budget limitations might make travel or the purchase

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    of new equipment difficult. While these options should be explored, they might not be part of

    the final action plan as a result.

    Engagement isn't solely a manager-driven outcome

    When used as a template for action planning, these five questions yield the critical elementsof buy-in and practical action. They also help dispel the myth that engagement is solely a

    manager-driven outcome. While managers can influence engagement, they can't be expected

    to generate it alone. Managers who use these questions will get associates involved by

    creating a conversation. By treating engagement as a process, not an event, they tie

    engagement to actions that produce cultural improvements and business outcomes.

    Five Questions for Action Planning

    These five questions offer a practical approach to help managers and teams think and

    talk about engagement. They work best when managers use them to start a discussionwith their teams immediately before reviewing their Q12 employee engagement

    survey results and to develop an action plan to increase engagement.

    Question one: How do we define each of the Q12 items in our workgroup? Forexample, how do we define "materials and equipment" for our team?

    Question two: Now that we defined each of the Q12 items for our workgroup,what would the ideal look like for each item?

    Question three: What is the difference between where we are now and thatideal?

    Question four: As we think about our action plan, which items have thegreatest impact on our culture or performance?

    Question five: What is every person on the team willing to do aboutengagement?