Make the sparks fly: how to embed employee engagement in an open culture

In my last post I explained how different workplace cultures need different employee engagement strategies. But what happens when you want to change your culture? 

That’s what many organisations are now wrestling with. The benefits of open culture working have become too attractive to ignore. Yet for companies whose DNA comes from a different place, suddenly telling your people they are free to think and act for themselves may not induce the excitement you hoped for. A brain adapted to seek permission and execute orders takes time to be properly rewired. Rush it, and your new engagement strategy may leave your employees disengaged. 

So lesson one - be patient. Recognise that you don’t flick the switch with a speech from the CEO, and nor do you sustain it with a fanfare of monthly awards. Sure, communication and recognition are important ingredients; but engaging your employees in an open culture is about so much more. 

If you’re wondering where to start, then how about with a clear definition of what you mean by ‘open’. I’ve always liked the term ‘inclusive meritocracy’, where the best idea wins, regardless of who says it. It has its roots in the IT world, or more specifically the developer community. Here is a profession that has always tackled problems collectively and largely anonymously. Not every developer today may share their forerunner’s mission to disrupt the world, but what they have inherited is the principle that ideas can’t be compromised by the loudest voice or the highest paid person. Open source, and more broadly open culture, is the legacy of this.

So it makes sense to start your transformation here. Find a DevOps team. Make sure they have credibility in the business. That means they’re working on mission critical projects, not the sort of sandbox experiments that can easily go unnoticed. Use them as your incubator. Give them the mandate to reach out and impart their methods on other teams. I’ve seen how quickly these ripples can spread to a critical mass. Engagement is contagious.

But don’t expect this to be an entirely organic transformation. For starters, you need to define the vision; your particular brand of employee engagement. So also study your chosen incubator.

How do they achieve this inclusive meritocracy? Alongside their natural inclination for collaboration, what are the formal structures and processes they need to make things tick? What are the qualities that their manager displays? You’d expect to see them relinquishing control and enabling constructive conflict, but there needs to be some controls that avoid things spiralling into chaos. 

And be very clear with yourself about what all that looks like when applied company-wide; because the next step is to communicate this to all your people. Abstract concepts won’t cut it. “Everyone should be heard, and everyone should feel they can contribute,” is right, but too vague. Focus on the practicalities: Who should be involved in making a decision? How do you resolve a conflict of opinion? What do I do if my manager isn’t involving me? If you’re asking people to change how they do their job, you’re going to have to give them clear instructions. 

But hold on - isn’t there a paradox in telling people how to be more independent? 

It’s all about balance. No open culture is entirely open, just like the most extreme closed culture will have its renegades and rule-breakers. As the architect, your job is to create the framework in which employees feel engaged; and then trust it, and them, to make the sparks fly. 

If there’s ever a right time to do all this, it’s when you’re thinking about your company’s purpose and values. What more powerful demonstration of employee engagement could there be than asking them what they want their company to stand for? Of course that’ll be a longer process than if you did this solely as an executive team; but that’s far outweighed by how quickly people will buy into it. 

We did this recently at Red Hat when designing our new logo. A logo may seem like a cosmetic matter, but employees can feel enormously attached to it. When a new one is forced on them the frustration is not so much about how it looks, but that you might have had a better idea. 

We could have briefed an agency, and got back something logical, quickly. But that wouldn’t be consistent with how we’ve engaged with our employees since we started 27 years ago. 

And that’s the final point about employee engagement. Any transformation needs to be long-term. It needs to transcend personalities coming in and out of the business. So yes, leaders are the catalyst for change; but then it’s employees who ultimately own employee engagement.