Asking your staff to think about the problems inside your business and getting them involved in addressing them can be a very valuable first step in changing the culture of ‘how we’ve always done it round here’. Perhaps you daren’t ask (what will you find out?) or find it hard in a busy organisation to create any time to do that.
Running informal discussion groups – market research – with staff offers a more structured way to start the process. Using an external facilitator and business adviser used to working this process effectively can help keep discussions moving along in a constructive way and get staff to air problems and begin to take ownership to solve the issues that drive them – and you – nuts.
We find that staff often also highlight longer term or more complex issues that needed to be addressed as well as the tactical things they can help fix quickly. And having the whole team engaging with customers’ concerns sparks off debate and raises important questions to be addressed about ways to improve service.
We have been running groups recently education and arts sectors, facing both financial and leadership challenges. If this resonates with you, pick up the ‘phone and let’s explore ways to begin unlocking the creative potential for cultural change inside your organisation.
