How to make popcorn
Sian Cargan
Internal Communications Director | #jobfairy | Employee Engagement | Culture | Change Management
Last week we brought 25 people, from 19 countries, over 50,000 miles to make popcorn.
I’m not referring to the stuff you put in the microwave, I’m talking about people popcorn.
This special group are our Engagement Champions, a voluntary role they take on in addition to their day jobs. There is no pay rise, promotion or bonus for being a Champion. And whilst they get exposure and support from the 'centre', an email here and a teleconference there can only go so far. Which is why we (and by 'we' I really mean the lovely Gisela Velterop) fought to bring them together.
Sure our carbon footprint might have taken a brief hit, the logistics were the stuff of nightmares, and it certainly wasn’t free. But having been in the room with these people for 3 days I can say without a doubt that this was a truly fantastic investment in the future of our business.
We spent 72 hours talking about strategy, customers, engagement, communications, and more importantly….listening to them. Not just listening, but hearing their thoughts, challenges, ideas.
The result? These people have now returned to their offices 100% committed to the role, 100% committed to our business, and 100% committed to making a difference in their own countries.
These people are our popcorn and they will pop around our business.
The challenge of course, will be to keep them popping.
(credit: Kevin Ball for the popcorn analogy)
For an extra little dose of engagement, and some actual theory, why not check out our animation.
Happily retired.
9 年Great engagement Sian. Love 'The people are our popcorn and they will pop around our business'. And your post is a POP! on LinkedIn today!
Helping people get more from technology. Always on the lookout for interesting people to have a coffee with.
9 年Despite the wonderful tools we have at our disposal, of you want to get a team to perform nothing beats getting them all together in to the same place and time. I was chatting with Edward D. Hess recently and we were speculating about this and the role of trust in allowing teams to collaborate. Will be interested to hear if the productiveness of your calls and emails now increases! Thanks for sharing the story and the analogy!
Investor | Advisor | Business and Sales Executive | Business Development | Business Strategy
9 年Excellent and so true story