How to keep people engaged

“Let’s not perpetuate a fantasy that ‘we’ll all be reunited, the way it was’ — this is going to be a long road, and it will not look the way people expect”. So said one of the participants in our recent private Zoom gathering of executives, hosted by TJA and Purple Patch.

As leaders, “grit your teeth and don’t expect much” is cold comfort for your people. So how do we keep everyone engaged for the long haul?

The remarkable COO of Barry’s Bootcamp, Devin Murphy, kicked off our session with eight senior leaders from a variety of industries.

Barry’s has been brutally affected by the shutdown. But true to the nature of a community-driven brand, they’ve been sharply focused on engagement. “We threw out everything we knew except for our mission, vision and values — that became our sole compass”, said Devin. That attitude helped them pivot to offering Barry’s at-Home, an offering created in record time that somehow has managed to engage not just current community members, but attract new ones.

The group we hosted all agreed that the first phase of crisis mode gave everyone a sense of purpose and an “all hands on deck” level of engagement. Now that we are out of that phase, the adrenaline has worn off and everyone is starting to see burnout and disengagement. One CEO said he worries that the loss of creativity and community will result in a “cultural scar” for the long run.

The good news from the meeting was that each leader had found something that was working to engage colleagues and customers in this moment — and we got to benefit from swapping ideas.

Here are some of my favorites:

Focus groups are a good tool for engaging customers in reopening

Barry’s has made good use of focus groups to bring together clients and colleagues and experts across the country, to understand what people are ready for and co-create a path forward. Devin noted that people were eager to talk through every aspect of hygiene and social distancing measures. That fits a principle of leadership in this moment which is about empowering people by involving all stakeholders in the process of reopening.

“Culture cohorts” create new connections and community

One leader has set up multiple 10-person “culture cohorts” around their firm, whose members have been randomly assigned, mixing different levels and breaking down the tendency towards hierarchy. “Without natural corridor meetings, we needed to create another way for people to meet more informally” she said.

Experimenting with early prototypes engages teams in problem solving for a return

In uncertainty, the only way to get good data is to experiment your way forward. Several leaders were conducting early experiments — moving things around in their workspaces, doing drills, running through new procedures with their teams.

Setting more boundaries gives colleagues a sense of control again

Setting boundaries is critical for helping people feel a sense of control and stability. Several of the leaders acknowledged it has been too easy to have work blend into every waking moment at home. That’s going to backfire very soon as people burn out (“Zoom fatigue” came up several times). “We have to recalibrate from a sprint to a marathon, which means we’re slowing down the frequency of our meetings”, said one software company CEO.

Creating space for serendipity is becoming more important

It sounds like a contradiction in terms. But one way to counter the loss of serendipitous encounters that nourish a culture is to plan for them. One leader is scheduling small brown-bag lunches over Zoom. Another is encouraging spontaneous celebrations for employees based on personal milestones. This stuff matters now, more than ever.

As I “zoom” out a bit (sorry) and reflect on what the group surfaced, it strikes me that the underlying leadership principle for emerging stronger from this pandemic is creativity. Each leader in our panel was in their own way seeking and finding ways to be more creative, and in turn to unlock the creativity of their people and their clients or customers.

How might you do the same?

Lead bravely,