Admitting one’s limits actually helps build engagement.
A perspective on front-line engagement from Japan | Opensource.com
Armed with what they’ve learned at these parties, these inexperienced (but smart) managers begin finding ways they can be helpful. Rather than just announce a plan to make changes, they spend time trying to understand what their employees needto have changed.
On some delicate subjects, I have been more successful holding peer-to-peer, open discussions after those parties. … With that environment and small group size, those discussions have been very successful for me, and I think that environment is the best venue for creative open discussions throughout Japan.
Finding a balance
Whether you’re putting together peers at a formal business meeting, at an official boss’s welcome party, or in a bar, I can’t stress enough the importance of balancing the four criteria Whitehurst explains in The Open Organization:
- Encouraging members to speak freely and honestly
- Encouraging members be courageous enough to be different
- Selecting members committed to achievement
- Selecting members with the willingness to be accountable for whatever is decided.
This is how to catalyze front-line engagement—by staying involved in decision-making, not by skirting it.