2. Co-design

Staff engagement forums, multidisciplinary projects

Leaders can feel isolated at times, with extra pressures and responsibility for decisions resting on their shoulders alone. It can be hugely empowering for you and others to share the load. Creating a regular forum where staff come together from across teams to focus on developing the business and operating processes can be highly effective. Whether or not unions are engaged in your workplace, inviting volunteers to act as representatives in a forum is a great way to create a safe space for direct feedback and introduce some useful nuances to the work you’re leading as a manager. 

This type of forum can be instrumental in building psychological safety. It offers an opportunity to hear candid feedback on policies and behaviours and can create an environment in which to hear first-hand what’s happening within teams. It also helps people test out ideas, and even language, enabling team members to feel invested in community cohesion. 

Opening up channels for direct feedback helps to avoid misunderstandings and circumvents the common tendency of team members to fill knowledge gaps with their own interpretations. 

The forum connects back to a bigger picture and an inside opportunity to hear about the concerns or worries of strategy setters. Members gain insight into the back-office machinations of the business, which is invaluable as teams often only understand how their department works. That sense of trust helps people to feel invested in the success of the business, and can also prime them for growth.

Watch out! Ensure that you are committed to the activity for at least 12 months. Set meetings for regular intervals, and ensure the team co-designs rules of engagement (including confidentiality). Consider all the decisions you are involved in as a leader and honestly ask which ones you need to control. If you’re in a corporate environment, consider which discretionary areas you can manage and focus on these, or jointly identify an innovation or stretch target you can commit to. Only delegate or share decisions that you will support the team to own – i.e. in an area they can meaningfully contribute to. Make sure that you will act on the suggestions and that you won’t undo their efforts if you disagree with their ideas.