Employee Engagement Trick: Get in on the Conversation Quickly
Posted Wednesday, July 15, 2009 by Mark Harbeke
Are you ready for a very short post with a very effective tip for employee engagement and manager team building?
One of my friends who's an attorney came up with this a while back to comfortably break the ice with a group of people who are talking and get immediately up to speed on what they're talking about. Instead of saying,
Excuse me, but what are you talking about?
ask,
Whose birthday is it?
My friend has found that when he does this, without fail someone responds, "Oh, it's no one's birthday. We were just talking about _____."
The uses for this trick in the workplace are many:
Owners, leaders, managers – use to encourage productivity before or after daily huddles, or any time you see groups of employees gathered in discussion.
Low- and mid-level employees – use to break into the convo with both workers at your level and even supervisors.
New hires – use as a smooth ice breaker to meet your coworkers and get a sense of the organization's pulse.
