As the end of the year draws close and focus for many, moves from survival, to making 2021 the year of positive growth, it’s time to consider how we connect with teams, decide on our approach to what would normally be called a Christmas party, and then more importantly how we plan to engage and excite teams for the year ahead.
In the same way that the Emotive Group place importance on understanding where a business actually is before designing and implementing a plan for the future, the same is true when we consider the people within any organisation.
Before we launch into activities designed to build peoples spirits and engage people for the year ahead, we need to create space to “check in” and find out how people are actually doing, how they feel about the world and what their concerns are moving forward.
Throughout challenging times, if you are lucky, the organisation you work with will have been proactive in its communications in order to keep you informed and up-to-date with the latest developments. The thing to keep in mind here however, is that this can often be quite didactic in nature – a one way flow of information that is a great start, but only half of the picture.
A mechanism or preferably a live forum that allows for a two way exchange of information can be really valuable in helping individuals to assimilate the experiences they have had, and helps build a sense of community through the voicing of what no doubt will be shared experiences.
If there is one thing I have learned through increased engagement with teams around mental health, it’s that the feelings and experiences that are pushed down and not acknowledged don’t magically go away, they sit there underlying everything that is then placed on top of them… a far from ideal foundation for the future.
Allowing space for people to have a voice effectively enables them to clear these feelings and emotions which then opens the way for communications around productivity, growth and future success.