Benedicto Cernal III

THE POWER OF HEARTBEAT A GUIDE FOR LEADERS Equipping leaders to have meaningful discussions with their team – creating a collaborative, empowering and inclusive environment Helping leaders know how to respond, deal with results on their feet, and ask the right questions to keep everyone involved 2 SECTION 1 - HEARTBEAT IN THE WORKPLACE WHAT ENGAGEMENT IS AND WHY IT MATTERS (We know you know this but just in case….) Heartbeat is a platform to measure how employees are feeling and how engaged they are. The word ‘engagement’ might sound like something soft and fluffy however, in reality, it is anything but. Employee engagement drives business results – fact. Companies with high levels of engagement grow faster than those who don’t. They are more profitable, more productive and they have fewer health and safety incidents. As well as the hard metrics that employee engagement contributes to, highly engaged teams create better customer experiences, they deliver sustainable change, they have more fun and in the words of President Barack Obama, they’re “Fired up, ready to go!” There are lots of definitions of employee engagement out there. If you do a quick Google search you’ll find things like ‘unlocking discretionary effort’ and ‘willingness to go the extra mile’. These are correct. However, probably the best definition that exists is your own personal one. So think about the last 30 days you’ve had at work and think about the best moment you had in that time. What was it and how did you feel? Be specific, get granular about what made the moment feel fantastic. That feeling that you are describing to yourself – that is engagement. And that’s what we want to create more of for people. Heartbeat is a great platform because it allows you to measure how people feel in the moment in a dynamic way but what then really makes the difference, is not what the results say but the conversations the results lead to – the actions you take off the back of what people say. What makes Heartbeat so powerful is that it doesn’t just measure rational stuff like people’s awareness and understanding, it measures feelings and emotions. These might seem scary to delve into – for some of us, it can feel a bit like opening Pandora’s Box. But emotions exist at work whether we like it or not. In fact, most decision making is not driven by logic but by emotion so it’s essential that as leaders we recognise this and tap into it. 3 Think about buying a new car. You can tell yourself you are basing your decision on cost, features and practicalities like petrol consumption, but at the end of the day you will choose the car you buy because of a feeling. You are buying into an image – a lifestyle that you can relate to, aspire to even. Work is the same. Yes, there are lots of tasks to perform, lots of data to read and lots of facts to point to but ultimately, how we feel is really important when it comes to decision making – you can all have all the best data in the world but if your gut tells you not to go for something you won’t. 4 STEP 1 - PRIOR TO USING THE HEARTBEAT SURVEY Make sure you have a really clear rationale for conducting a Heartbeat survey. Think about what you are trying to measure – what outcome are you trying to get to. And then take time to explain to people in advance that the survey is coming, what it’s about and why it’s important they make their voice heard. If you can show people how their feedback in the past has shaped how things have been done then refer to this. It will make them feel more inclined to give their views if they know that things will be done as a result. STEP 2 - DURING THE SURVEY PERIOD Encourage people to participate in the survey as the more people that do, the more meaningful the results will be. But don’t go too far. There is a fine line between encouragement and coercion - never cross it. Feedback should always be encouraged, not forced. One way to maximize participation is to explain to people how important their views are, that senior people will be listening and that action will be taken as a result of what they say. And don’t lead the witness. One company ran a poster campaign aimed at its employees prior to an engagement survey launch bearing the message, “If you think we’ve made progress, give us a 5 out of 5.” People saw straight through this and quickly realised engagement had become more about score chasing than anything else in this company. Remember, honest feedback is meaningful and actionable, fake feedback is worthless. We know from social media that transparency matters to people in their personal lives and it’s the same at work. So make sure everyone is aware that they can view the results as they are happening in real-time. This is very engaging in and of itself and will also help to build trust across your organisation as they recognize that leaders aren’t hiding results but rather sharing them openly with everyone as a way to start people thinking about the conversations that will flow from the results. 5 STEP 3 - WHEN THE RESULTS ARE IN… PREPARATION Preparation is vital. Make sure you take time to understand the scores and the comments. Read the results two or three times and give yourself time and space to gather your thoughts. And pay attention to the environment by organising the logistics and the room where you’re going to share the results with people. Do you want them to sit in a circle to make the session feel more conversational? Do you need flip charts? Do you want to provide drinks and snacks to relax the atmosphere? And think about how you will show up in the room – how will you behave? Plan your approach and think how you will deal with challenges in a way that doesn’t just shut people down or erode trust. SHARING THE RESULTS WITH YOUR TEAM AND STARTING A POWERFUL CONVERSATION Share the results with your team in a timely way and ideally in a face to face meeting. Don’t rush this part in a quest to get onto the actions. Give time and space for people to get their heads around the results and talk about their reactions. Set the tone for them by talking from the heart about how you feel about them. What are you encouraged by? What has surprised you? Do this in a way that is not about being defensive or making excuses. People will respond well if you are genuinely open about what the results are saying. When you look at the emotions people have selected, focus first on emotions that are above the line as those that are above the line are 10% or more so more dominant whereas those that are below the line are 10% or less so not dominant. Don’t rush this bit or skip it if it doesn’t feel comfortable – understanding people’s emotions and what drives them is critical. With the free text questions talk about the algorithm which selects the top five. When looking at the results for free text questions explain to your audience that Heartbeat has an algorithm that goes through the free text answers and pulls up the top five most representative answers from all comments. You’ll find this really useful as it highlights themes and gives you some ideas to use in the next stage – which is around agreeing actions. 6 Avoid asking them closed question such as ‘Are the results a surprise?’ as these yield binary responses which tend to go nowhere. Instead asking open questions such as ‘What has surprised you about these results?’ as these will generate a far richer dialogue with more energy in the room. Sometimes it’s better to break people into smaller groups to discuss what the results mean to them and then ask them to play back the themes to the wider group afterwards. You are likely to get deeper, more honest feedback this way and it avoids any awkward tumbleweed moments. Remember your role as leader in this scenario is to facilitate, involve and discuss so resist the temptation to tell and instruct or worse, defend… this is a sure fire way to shut down the conversation quickly. “Great leaders don’t have all the answers, they ask the right questions.” And on the topic of questions, the better the questions you ask, the better the conversation will go. Remember, open questions involve people, closed questions shut them down. “The questions you ask people determine the direction of travel you go in.” Charles Irvine – Questions of Difference Founder Great questions open up new possibilities and options Types of questions Closed – requires a short and usually factual answer and often brings the conversation to a halt. e.g. “is this the best way forward for you?” use “what's the best way forward for you?” Open – encourages a good response, e.g. what other choices could you make? Encouraging – lets the other person know you’re interested, e.g. I like your thinking, tell me more. Probing – brings expansion and encourages greater depth and thought e.g. what do you think they meant by that? Reflective – reflects back something implied by what someone said e.g. “so how do you feel valued?” 7 Clarification – provides a summary of whats been said in order to check that you’ve fully understood, e.g. “am I right in saying that you believe…?” Hypothetical – encourages people to think creatively and brings new options, e.g. if you could get round the problem what would you do?” Leading – gets the answer you want and often implies you are right and they are wrong, e.g. don’t you think it would be better to do it this way?” Start by asking their initial views and show appreciation for their feedback. Are the results what people were expecting? What surprises them? Focus on what’s positive and dwell on it for a bit before looking at what needs addressing as there’s plenty of time for that. Human nature leads us to go straight to the negative but we can learn as much from what is working well. And it makes for a more energising conversation. Don’t get defensive or emotional if the results aren’t what you were hoping for or if you personally disagree with them or people’s take on them. Remember we are talking about feelings and emotions and there are no right or wrong answers, but there are better questions! EXAMPLES of great questions • How will we know we have achieved that goal? • What has worked for us in the past? • How can you start to resolve this issue? • What is happening right now? • How clear are we on what we want to achieve? • What does success look like for us? • How long have we got to achieve this? • How will we know when we have succeeded? • Does this accurately summarise what our aims are? • How committed are we in achieving this goal on a scale of 1 - 10? • How confident are we in achieving this goal on a scale of 1 - 10? • What will we do if we run into difficulty? • How will we celebrate our success? • How will we feel having achieved this action? • What do we want to focus on? • What will we have to do to complete this? • What is great about this problem? • What is not perfect yet? • What are we willing to do to make it the way we want it? • How can we enjoy the process while we do what is necessary to make it the way we want it? • What’s good about this (the issue)? • What are you happy about in your work right now? • What have you learned recently? • What’s important for us to focus on? • Where do we go from here? • How might this translate into action? • What would be the perfect question to ask right now? • How else can we consider this? 8 STEP 4 - AGREEING ACTIONS AND OWNERSHIP When selecting what to action plan against, the trick is to focus on two or three results and not boil the ocean by selecting too many. You can ask people to vote on which questions to focus on if the choices don’t naturally emerge in conversation. These need to be the questions that if tackled will have the biggest positive impact on how people feel. Also, as with discussing your Heartbeat results, it can be a good idea to break people into smaller groups when it comes to creating lists of actions. Sometimes when people come up with actions, they fall within their Circle of Influence actions that people can take themselves. Other actions fall into the Circle of Concern – actions that people can’t directly influence but can raise with others in the hope that action is taken. Try to ensure most actions fall within the Circle of Influence rather than the Circle of Concern as it will be easier to deliver quick wins and show people that their ideas have generated action. Try to make the actions SMART (Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Realistic and Timely). There is no point making a list of actions if you don’t know who is going to drive them forward and by when. Take some actions yourself to show willingness and where it makes sense for you to take ownership. But resist the temptation to take on all the actions yourself and ensure other people take ownership of some too. The idea with engagement and taking action is everyone is in it together and that people make improvements as a team. Heartbeat surveys and their results are owned by everybody, leaders just provide the opportunity for feedback and facilitate the subsequent conversations. Where you will display your actions? Do you want to share them with others? How will you build time into your team meetings to review the steps you’ve taken? 9 FOLLOW THROUGH AND KEEPING UP THE ENERGY Research shows that following through on agreed actions is the single biggest way to guarantee engagement levels improve over time. It’s pretty obvious when you stop and think about it…. People say what’s on their mind, actions are agreed and if they are carried out then people feel good because their opinion has been acted on and an issue has been removed or its impact reduced. Following through on actions can happen at a team level during team action planning conversations which should be ongoing. And it can also happen on a one-to-one basis too. Sometimes people are too nervous to share what’s really bothering them in a group situation and therefore you should always check in with them individually too as this may throw up some new issues and actions. And if actions come up in a one-to-one discussion, the resolution of them should only be discussed in one-to-one conversations, not in front of the wider team as this will potentially damage levels of trust. A very important step is to remind people from time to time of what their feedback was and what’s been done as a result of it. We call this linking and labelling. You said, we did…. Don’t assume people will make the connection for themselves – sometimes they need a bit of a reminder. And if people in the team have driven the actions forward then praise them publically for doing so. It will make them feel great, position you well with the team and it will inspire others to do more actions that are worthy of praise and recognition. One top tip is that if certain proposed actions can’t be seen through, explain why to people and close the loop for them. People are usually fine that their actions aren’t taken forward provided that they are given a reason. It’s when they don’t receive a reason and their suggestions disappear off into the ether that issues arise. It also means the next time you ask people for feedback and ideas, they will be less inclined to give them. 10 Like emotions, actions are relevant at a certain point in time. Therefore you should always check with people that the actions you’re taking as a team are still the right ones. Are there any new actions that need to be added? Are there any existing actions that are no longer fit for purpose? EMBEDDING THE PRINCIPLES OF ENGAGEMENT INTO BUSINESS AS USUAL (BAU) Sometimes when you carry out a survey, you can mistake engagement for being a process. A survey to measure mood followed by tangible actions that deliver benefit. Remember what we said at the beginning, engagement might drive tangible business results but it’s also about how people feel and needs to be treated as such. Many companies only ever reach transactional engagement – where they measure and then take actions based on survey results. The very best companies out there though, the most progressive ones – they see engagement as much more than a process and they go in search of transformational engagement. This is about using the principles of engagement – things like listening to people, involving them, recognising them and applying these principles to what you do every day, not just once a month in a survey action planning conversation. This is the power of Heartbeat, listening in real-time, and this is the power of you, leading timely conversations that flow from the results of Heartbeat. So next time you have a business strategy, don’t cascade it, involve people in shaping it, even if you have to set fairly fixed parameters upfront. If you want to streamline a process, ask your people who use the process every day what they would do differently rather than decide this for them. It might take a bit of extra time and effort upfront but the results will be well worth it. “Highly engaged employees make the customer experience. Disengaged employees break it.” –Timothy R. Clark 11 TIPS, TOOLS AND STRATEGIES 1. Prepare in advance open questions that you are going to ask around the results. 2. When agreeing actions, ensure it is clear who is responsible for driving the action forward. 3. Give examples of what has been done as a result of the previous survey. QUESTIONS FOR YOU TO ASK YOURSELF 1. How can I encourage my team to open up and share their thoughts? 2. What is my mind-set as I go into the meeting/ conversation? Am I going in with an open mind, or am I defensive? 12 SECTION 2 - HEARTBEAT AT A LIVE EVENT THE POWER OF LIVE FEEDBACK Using Heartbeat at a live event shows strength of leadership. Seeking feedback is a brave move, especially when you are asking people about their emotions. But it’s a step worth taking if you want your audience not just to sit there passively but to act or think differently as a result of what you say. It shows people that you are listening and will generate far more commitment and buy-in from them. So if you’ve already decided to use Heartbeat at your event then good on you! If you’re undecided, we urge you to take the step. “Feedback is the breakfast of champions”. – Ken Blanchard PRE-EVENT PREPARATION Getting the most out of Heartbeat has a lot to do with you feeling at your best and "in the zone". This is around confidence and it’s definitely the case that investing a bit of time upfront in preparation will make all the difference. Technology check Basic, but vital! Check that the technology has been tested in advance to avoid hiccups. Heartbeat will work fine but do double check the wi-fi at the venue and ideally make sure that a technical support person is on standby in case of any problems. Rehearse with a friendly audience Sometimes it's tempting to limit your prep to going through things in front of the mirror at home, or even in the loo at work if time is particularly tight! But honestly there is nothing like doing a live rehearsal in front of a friendly audience who can offer you constructive feedback and support. Make sure you get them to use Heartbeat and practise reacting to the responses they give. If possible, do a practice on stage at the venue itself – either the day before or get in early on the day itself. This will make you feel far more relaxed when you do it for real. 13 Put thought into asking the right questions Questions done right are one of your most powerful tools in your armoury as a leader. So put in a decent amount of time developing your questions. Take some time on this stage asking a few people for their input on your drafts. Good questions inspire thought and discussion, like: • If you were a start-up competing against us what would you do differently that would put us out of business? • What is the cheapest change you could make that would most improve our performance? • What is the headline you want to see written about us in 5 years time? • If you had to sum up your best ever boss with one word, what would it be? 14 Questions to avoid include: • Closed questions, like those which only have a yes or no answer. • Obvious questions, like "which company culture do you think we can aspire to be like?” (know that 90% of people will say Apple or Google) • Vanity questions, like “Of all the things I’ve talked about today, what excites you most?“ • Negative questions, like “What don’t you like about working here’”. These can lead to a “moan fest” which is rarely helpful. Instead frame it in a way that it will get solutions… “If there was one area you would build on to make working at this company even better what would it be?”. “Successful people ask better questions, and as a result they get better answers.” Tony Robbins 15 Be clear on the feedback parameters you want to set A great use of Heartbeat is to get input and discussion on something you are working on - for example your business strategy. However, only ask for feedback if you’re open to it and are likely to act on what you hear. Asking for it when you’ve already made your mind up is one of the most dis-engaging things you can do as a leader. So in your presentation set out which bits are set in stone and which bits are genuinely open to feedback. It’s absolutely ok to do this and people will appreciate your honesty. Cautionary tale: One FTSE 100 company asked for feedback on their new Target Operating Model. Yet in reality the decisions had already been made and set in stone. When people found out about this they became massively disengaged and even angry. Good people switched off and ended up leaving and the whole project became far more costly and difficult as a result. 16 IN THE ROOM - BEFORE YOU ASK THE QUESTIONS Set the context Make sure you give some context before you start asking people to use Heartbeat. Talk about why you want their feedback and how you value it. For example the kind of thing you could talk about is around the power of teamwork. No single person can transform your organisation – but working together, the power can be transformational. Talk also perhaps about the power of diversity of thought. You see the world from one perspective but you value the power of other people’s perspective and insight too. This is where you will also set out the parameters - the parts that are set in stone and the parts where you need feedback. Set expectations It’s also important to set clear expectations on what will happen with the feedback they give. Set out what will happen today with their feedback and what will happen afterwards. Do this before you ask questions not afterwards. IN THE ROOM - WHILE YOU ARE ASKING THE QUESTIONS Encourage people While people are using Heartbeat make sure you don't just stand there like a robot flicking through your notes. Give verbal encouragement, use some humour or even wander around a bit in the audience chatting with groups of people. Give them enough time. Give people permission to say what they really think This is important. What we don’t mean is literally give people permission. We mean show the kind of boldness you are looking for. For example, if the question you’re asking is “If you were a start-up competing against us what would you do differently that would put us out of business?” say thinks like: “If you would have no stores and just online, tell us” “If you wouldn’t bother with the UK market anymore, tell us” “Or, if you think this business is way too stuffy and we should all be out there on the shop floor wearing jeans, then tell us that too” Use humour, push the boundaries a little and put people at ease. Do whatever it takes to get your audience trusting you and feeling able to give their honest views. 17 IN THE ROOM – RESPONDING TO THE RESULTS How you personally respond on stage to the results is vitally important as it sets a tone for the subsequent discussion. It’s also the bit that many presenters spend most time worrying about so here are some tips to take some of this worry away… Before you do anything – thank people! When the results flash up on the screen, thank people for sending them - even if the results look a bit more negative than you imagined. If feedback is negative thank people for their honesty. It’s far better you know now than later. Say something like: “Thank you everyone - You’ve told me what you really think and this is just what I wanted. This is what this session is all about. We can now work together to get this to a state where we’re all excited about it”. Respond to the emotion question first before moving onto the others. It’s tempting to rush the emotion question. But this is the first question people are asked and it really is the most important. Remember emotions are in the room whether we acknowledge them or not. We like to think in business that everything is decided by logic. In reality, people are driven first by emotion. Emotion is the key to engagement. Spend some time here, it’s worth it. Tap into emotions and you can unleash tremendous power – commitment, creativity and ownership. “When dealing with people remember you are not dealing with creatures of logic but creatures of emotion.” – Dale Carnegie 18 With the emotion question focus most on the triangle above the line Bear in mind that the triangle emotions below the line are emotions that are less than 10% so not dominant and those that are above the line are 10% or more so more dominant. Therefore, focus your comments and subsequent discussion more on the above the line emotions. It sets the tone for a strength-based discussion which is always much more engaging. Talk about what the results mean to you personally There’s nothing like speaking from the heart to engage people, so tell people what resonates with you most – and make this come alive with real stories and experiences. For example: “It’s great to see that many of you are feeling empowered. I’ve worked in a place where I wasn’t. I couldn’t do a thing without getting permission or having to jump through hoops. It will be great to discuss in a bit how we can all get to feeling positive about this”. Or, “Seven out of ten of you think that this strategy is achievable within five years. I wasn’t sure at first but the more I see going on the more I feel this too.” Or “I love this suggestion here. All of our managers spending one day a quarter on the shop floor. I worked for a place that did something like that once and it made such a difference.” But don’t skip the negatives You’ll annoy people intensely if you ignore the negatives. So notice them, call them out, acknowledge people’s feelings, and talk about your determination to work with people to turn them round. Say things like: “I can see that some people are feeling disconnected. I’m sorry to hear that as it’s vital all of us in this room feel part of the team. I want to work with you to see how we can fix this.” Or, “Only two out of ten people think that we've broken down the hierarchy in our company. That really worries me as I thought we’d be further on than this. Lets look at what you said under the why question to understand why.” 19 With the free text questions talk about the algorithm which selects the top 5 When looking at the result for free text questions explain to your audience that Heartbeat has an algorithm that goes through the free text answers and pulls up the top 5 most representative answers from all comments. As a presenter you’ll find this really useful as it highlights themes and gives you some ideas to use in the next stage – which is around starting conversations among the audience. IN THE ROOM – STARTING CONVERSATIONS THAT LEAD TO IDEAS FOR ACTIONS After you’ve talked about your response to the results, then comes the most important bit. This is starting conversations in the room that lead to ideas for actions. As we said earlier – action is the key to engagement so you need to make sure that your session doesn’t just turn out to be a talking shop. Get people into groups To make conversations work you need to get the logistics right, so spend some time thinking this through beforehand. If the room is set out in cabaret style this can be quite easy as people can just chat in their table groups. If the seating is in theatre style this can be a bit more tricky but one suggestion is to get people to gather into groups of four with two people in one row leaning over to talk to two people in the row behind. Start with a “Reflection Question” Don’t leap straight to action. Get people in the zone by starting with a question that’s purely about reflection. Like: ”What has most surprised you about the results you have seen?” Then move to “Action Idea” Questions Now move to questions that get people’s ideas for action. You may want to think about one or two of these questions in advance, but it’s far more engaging if at least one is in response to the Heartbeat Live results you’ve just seen. Try to positively frame them and get people to build on what is great already. 20 For example, if a Heartbeat question was “How agile are we compared to our competitors?” and the response was only three out of ten, the “Action Idea” question could be: “What can we learn from what we are doing well, to become more agile as a company?”. Or, if the Heartbeat emotion question told you that people felt disempowered, the “Action Idea” question could be: “Thinking about when it has felt great here, how can we become more empowering as a company?” Or, if a freeform idea or comment really resonated with you maybe use that as the basis for a group discussion too. Get feedback into the room from the group conversations After people have had enough time to discuss the Reflection Question or the Action Idea Questions, make sure you play their ideas back into the main room. This works really well if you ask each table or group to nominate a spokesperson and then use a ‘roving mic’ to get views from around the room. As people give their comments, make sure you’re actively listening. Reflect on what people say and make sure you, or someone helping you, captures the ideas on a flip chart. IN THE ROOM – TAKING THE ACTIONS FORWARD After you’ve had people’s feedback you need to take a call on how to take them forward “Will do” and “Will consider” actions Some of the ideas you have heard may be obvious low hanging fruit. Others may require more thought and consideration. One idea is to state clearly what are the “Will do actions” and what are the “Will consider actions”. Don’t over-promise However enthusiastic you and the room are, don’t come up with a long list of actions. Just focus on agreeing on one or two ‘Will dos’ and one or two “Will considers”. You can always add more in later but it’s far better to under-promise and then over-deliver. 21 Share the ownership Don’t take on all the actions yourself. Not only is this unrealistic, it’s also disempowering. So, for example, with the “Will consider” questions ask for volunteers in the room to own them and take them forward and come to you and your Exec team, in say a month, with their findings. AFTER THE EVENT - FOLLOWING UP Follow-up is the bit that people can overlook and doing so has a big negative impact. There is nothing more disengaging than getting people’s excitement levels up at an event and then nothing tangible actually changing as a result. And, remember, if you don’t ensure follow up, next time you ask for their views you’ll have lost their faith and trust. Follow up immediately There is nothing better than a follow-up communication next morning written by you in your authentic tone of voice. Thank people for their feedback. Remind people of some of the key insight that came out of Heartbeat and the subsequent discussion. Remind people of the “Will do” and “Will Consider” actions and who is owning them. Set out your immediate personal commitment. And ask people to commit to something too (e.g. I’m going to cut the red tape in my department by doing xx and I want you to do similar and tell me about it). Let them know when they can expect to hear more or when you want to hear from them. Then keep people updated on the actions Remember this may not be you updating on all actions, it may be giving accountability for this to others. But in any case you’ll need to make sure that it happens. Also remember some of the “Will consider” actions or even the “Will do” actions may turn out to be unfeasible. Always be upfront about this and explain why. People will appreciate the honesty. And remember when actions are completed – celebrate this and make a big deal that it came from people’s feedback. “Loyalty is hard to find. Trust is easy to lose. Actions speak louder than words” – Anon 22 QUESTIONS FOR YOU TO ASK YOURSELF 1. What are the key outcomes of the meeting/ conversation/ event? Write them down. 2. What questions can I ask to achieve the key outcomes? 3. How am I going to capture the agreed actions and ensure they are completed? 23