Engagement Equals Trust Equals Engagement

We were talking about ‘trust’ last night in our Storytelling group - it’s our biggest subject – one we return to again and again and the source of most of our root issues – and in my workshops one of the subjects that comes up time and time again.

Engagement equals trust. Primarily Trust that our leaders will do ‘The Right Thing

Three other phrases that have always resonated with me in particular.

Trust means I can fail and you won’t leave me

Trust means if I sacrifice for your good, you will return the favour in the future

Trust rates good intentions over current results and allows for second chances

But to do that sometimes, just sometimes, you have to listen through the noise to the real story.

The Rules of (Dis)Enagagement and Customer Service

Anybody watch the new BBC Documentary about Kings Cross Railway Station? 

I replayed it on I-player and thought for one moment I was watching ‘The Office School of Employee Engagement. One, two minute motivational speech by some poor bloke whose name it would be most unfair to mention - as it’s not his fault - delivered an almost perfect ‘how not to do it’. His take onto how to win his team’s hearts and minds and provide great customer service was basically to threaten them with the sack. I actually lost count after 20 of all the mistakes he inadvertently made in just two minutes. I didn't think that was physically possible.

The daft thing, and in the grand scheme of the truly, truly daft stuff, is that the scores of similar well-intentioned but futile speeches go on every day in in every organisation you can think of, and the even dafter thing  is that they are easily fixable. It’s almost criminal when you look at the massive cost decaying levels  of employee engagement has on our economy, when it’s really just about bad training. OK, you should add to that outdated role models and the myopic view that the stick and carrot is still what works.. This is despite the fact that the deliverer of the message know themselves,  that threats and honey wouldn't work for them. So why would they think it would work for their ‘minions’? It's a big blindspot.

The truly scary thing is that this fly on the wall snapshot is not unusual. It’s endemic. From the Town Halls to the hospital admin departments. It’s an echo that reverberates around the halls and open plan offices of every government department, every quango, every place where they spend our money. Our taxes, our rail fares our VAT, our Television Licence. Our newspaper price, or our elected Officials. It’s everywhere like dust, noise and Clare Balding. Although Clare is way more fun.

 But, having spent several years working is the Health Service training middle managers in change communications, I can categorically say that they aren't the problem. They are genuinely good souls who want to do the best job they can. No…It’s not them. It’s the higher management, the higher up the food chain the less connection or engagement they seem to have. And my apologies here  to the rare, but extremely capable exceptions who have inspired me on numerous occassions but my observation is that the vast majority of senior managers have the biggest issues and are the root cause of most on the wastage, and overspends; the lack of innovation and cultural deficit. You need  look no further than the recent appalling events at Staffordshire and subsequent current reports and fallout for a glaring example of what that style of management can actually deliver. We deserve better. Both customer and employee.

The prevalent attitude I would describe, as an outside observer who is not fortunately not gagged by any agreements by the way, goes something like this… ‘I’m at grade 10, so, having reached these giddy heights, I must know what I’m doing?’ Well, while that may be true and they may be terrific in fleshing out and designing a new treatment protocol flow or they have Jedi like skills in Excel manipulation, their skills in transforming, persuading and influencing (Engagement) are at best misinformed, and at worst counter-productive. At very worst they are the very road block themselves. They have an image of themselves and a belief, reinforced by the behaviour of their peers, that they are ‘special’ and don’t need training and that they are somehow above it all.. But, and this is the big but, it’s a position not arising from some sort of  arrogance enhancement procedure . It arises from how they really feel more deeply. That is that admitting that they needed training would mean admitting some sort of frailty and in the dog eat cat world of office politics signs of weakness are a big no. no.

 No, I don’t think it's complacency, or that they are big-headed or power-crazy, although we all know some of them are. For most its just a lack of confidence and self-belief and the inability to admit that they don’t have all the answers. It is part of the ingrained British organisational culture of Failure Avoidance . The problem is that these are the individuals with the most influence  ultimately set the pace the tempo, the style, the rules of engagement (or disengagement) and all seem to jump on the same band wagon without realising that its being pulled by a team of lemmings who are late for the party.

They can hardly be surprised if it doesn't work. But amazingly they are!!!!! It never ceases to amaze me that they are amazed that people will not just follow them blindly. The refrain I most often hear from them is.. Why do ‘my people’ not get it? The answer is simple. They don’t because you don’t.

 So what exactly are they doing wrong?

Well apart from some basic fundamentals I’d narrow it down to them not knowing that there are Three Rules for Disengagement (actually nearer thirty – mail me for the rest….. )

1. No-one ever changed the way they behaved or felt about an organisation because they read a mission statement somebody else has written.

2. No ever changed the way they thought about business when they were in fear of losing the job

3. And no-one ever connected to a metaphor that is so far apart from the reality of the real situation. Kings Cross Station as a five star hotel… for a railway station? ???? I know it’s got lots of new shiny bits. It looks great, but forgive me if I don’t see the Valet parking or the complimentary chocolate on my seat.

 And I’d add an extra one, which is the most important.

 4. You must give them new eyes to view the landscape not a new landscape and the same old tired dusty spectacles.

I am, and I am sure you too dear reader, are not really impressed by people who criticise something but don’t provide an alternative are you? So here is my alternative suggestion.

There is another way

OK knowing the tile of this blogsite you have probably already guessed. It’s all about the power of story. The single most powerful tool EVER that can engage and encourage willing collaboration.

 So… maybe our colleague should ditch the pointless flip chart and…….begin.......really communicating.

Maybe she tells the story of just one of your customer’s, whose  journey ( quest) on a busy Friday afternoon. She is called Edith and 71 years old, recently widowed, her husband used to drive her in the Volvo for the long journeys and she has just got out of the Tube, for the first time in twenty years, which she now hates. She is trying to catch the train up to see her new grandson. As well as her heavy-wheeled suitcase… you can never   too many clothes dear…She has a present too. A massive stuffed giraffe almost as tall as her. She will have to change trains in Peterborough. (Hands up all these who from Yorkshire and the Northern Territories who have to stand up to Peterborough even if they have a reservation?)

 So some more detail, to add some atmosphere….It’s February, it’s cold, damp , the train is 25 minutes late already as the driver is on a 30 minute break and his last train in was delayed because the last , was, (lnsert any one of 200 reasons here)…. well, you get the picture. She has a reservation but someone is sat in her seat. So, what are you (Our Hero) going to do to make sure she books the trip again and is happy to pay what you are asking?

Let them work on it for an hour in their teams, and then add;

Now imagine the same story, but this time that Edith is actually their own mum.

What does great customer service look like really? It looks a bit like that...Light that blue touch paper and then see what happens.

Happy travels.

Who says storytelling can't transform

Employee Engagement- A lesson from 100 years ago

You know how sometimes the most obvious things are looking you in the face? I've been looking for examples of employee engagement stories. The bad stuff, and I mean really bad, cringeworthy examples of ill conceived communications, the well intentioned ideas that backfired or the complete and utter miscalculation of some of the bosses, we have all probably met at some point. You know exactly what I am talking about. And, of course to get a bit of balance, the stories about the truly amazing stuff too.

And then I remembered..... how could I forget?

I am a direct product of one of the greatest employee engagement stories of all time. The story that created one of the world's largest companies and boxes full of household name brands that have become intertwined with virtually everybody's life. If you having been thinking that employee engagment is about just being being a bit more cuddly, or that it might be a 'nice thing' to put a few bits of gym kit in the basement for your staff, o rmaybe put in a shower, I am here to tell you that you really don't know the half or it.

I am a child of a village called Port Sunlight, created over 100 years ago to look after the workers for the Lever Brothers soap factory, by one of the greatest social philanthopists the commercial and industrial world has ever see. It is still there, in all its pristineness, just a twenty minute drive from the Pier Head in Liverpool. A magical, inspiring place of space and calm that sets the benchmark for how to treat and nuture your talent; your employees.


Growing up in the village a bit like going through the wardrobe to Narnia It was just a perfect place to grow up but, more than that, it raised my expectations and lifted my eyes to new horizons and, maybe most of all provided me along with the humanitarian lessons, that a staff’s welfare isn't just a nice thing to do and think about, but has a bottom line effect that can help create, and this is not to any degree hyperbole, an empire. The Unilever Group now includes the ultra brands of the likes of Lynx and Ben & Jerry’s and employs hundreds of thousands across the Globe. All because of palm oil and one man's vision of how to add value to it.

Today the village is still very much as it was. Although there are naturally more cars it still is remarkably peaceful. The wide vistas, pavements and green spaces are all still their, manicured and coiffured. The buildings, columns, walls and the numerous nods to a world history of architectural styles are devoid of any graffitti, anywhere. At the centre of the village, the hub holding the glorious spikes of its structure together, is the stunning war memorial, one of the most glorious and moving examples of the art form built anywhere.

The outdoor swimming pool, heated to almost tropical delights by the factory, in which thousands of us Sunlight children learnt to swim, is now a garden centre. But pretty well everything else is still there as it was when it was built 120 years ago - although the slopes we rode our bikes up and down and the statues and fountains we climbed over, seem a lot smaller these days.

There are hundreds of stories that feature the founder, William Hesketh Lever and his wife Elizabeth, and what they did on a day-to-day basis for the welfare of their staff, but I think one story epitomises what they may have felt about what was the right thing to do.

Imagine it is the early 1900's. The factory has blossomed since its opening in 1887, and new demand means they are opening their first factory overseas in Brussels, so what does Lever do?

He shuts the factory and the village for a weekend. He takes 2000, yes that's 2000 of them, on a trip. That's pretty well everyone in the village. They are used to the paid for annual trips to indulge in the delights of Blackpool, the garden parties in their own home, the birthday presents for every child, often delivered by Elizabeth herself. This time, they are given an adventure few would ever dream of. The employees are all given colour coded tickets to board specially hired colour coded trains, (you could do that in those days), to take them to the English Channel, then by ferry to Ostend, where this small victorian army is collected up by more painted trains. On their arrival in Brussels that are wined and dined at a string of restaurants across the city and then given a tour in a fleet of 300 wagons and landaus before the opening ceremony that evening. The village's own 40 piece orchestra play to entertain them.

This was in 1900. Can you imagine challenges of this logistical feat? They did have the help of another famous company, that is still going strong, one Thomas Cook, but even so? Can you imagine asking your board to write that cheque? And why did he do it?

It was I believe pretty simple really - he realised that, 100 years before we ‘invented’ the concept of work life balance, 60 years before the UK’s welfare state and free health care, 100 years before the creation of the EU and maximum working week directives, that the single most important factor in creating a happy and willingly cooperative and productive workforce was to build within it a sense of belonging. And he also was always mindful that you cannot build anything with people who do not care and that his own personal wealth arose from their labours.

This wasn't just a one off either. Change is not a single event. The list of events and goes on and on. I have scores of stories about the ideas and initiatives, of his innovation and sometimes down right cunning; how he introduced a maximum 36 week for all female staff - this was in the 1890’s for heavens sake - free medical treatment in their own hospital, workers education programmes, it just goes on and on. Although undoubtedly driven by pure benevolence, he wasn’t just being Father Christmas, it was also had a pragmatic bottom in too. Something he was very, very aware of.

He makes you feel a tad of ashamed with our miserly efforts, and IC managers worrying ourselves to death about whether the intranet works.

History is often a useful reference, but don't we we all need a 'root's story anyway?


Please feel to post your example of the good or bad internal communications or employee engagement below, anonymously if you like or give is us link to something, or just share.