This was a fascinating conversation and it became clear quite quickly that it was a topic we were all passionate about and could talk for a long time on! We used the pre-prepared board to guide the starting point of the discussion and to think about how our managers are affecting the very low employee engagement scores across organisations globally. Two key themes emerged during our discussion:
1. Managers themselves are experiencing low engagement so there’s no wonder they are affecting the low scores;
2. The ‘poor management’ situation has been prevalent for a while (pre-Covid) and driven by a number of factors, mainly that managers are being appointed based on their technical ability, not their management ability or desire. In turn, then not receiving adequate training to develop and hone their skills of managing people.
Whilst we came up with lots of things we’d want to see, we concluded that it was a situation that ultimately required a lot of conversations in organisations. The conversations give organisations a great opportunity to improve management competence and performance, if there is a willingness and desire to do so.
We’d love you to take the time to watch the highlights and either way here are our brief notes about what you can take away from the session ‘Talking about Managers’:
1. An observation that Managers themselves are disengaged- thanks Judy!
2. Noting a mismatch between the role definition and expectations of a manager- Gary, Colin then Judy builds on;
3. A lack of training for managers to perform their role to the best of their ability’ -Gary;
4. Managers don’t always have the skills to interact well with people, to humanise the role, this is not always a significant focus- credit to Ed!
5. Noting the difference between this and being a ‘work machine’ -again thanks Ed!
6. A demonstration whilst we didn’t have time to orientate attendees on the Board Mart was able to hold the hot-pen and translate points in one place onto the Board following Wendy’s prompts and voiceover;
8. Colin gave a good challenge around working on oneself to be able to better manage people;
Into Opportunties:
9. to see people as technicolour human beings ~diversity Judy;
10. Easier having a team of clones – but no-one does! Judy;
Onto the ‘Wrap-up’:
11. There is a need to have plenty of conversations within organisations!
12. The conversations are complex, so having something like BIG PICTURE® to facilitate them would be really helpful for organisations;
13. We used the BIG PICTURE® Symbols to show how we break down complexity to help people make sense.
With more time in your community we would make further connections, unpack details and strenghen the top Opportunities to create an action list of what comes next.
