I first got involved in this thing called engagement 14 years ago. I was asked by my then manager, to attend a workshop at our headquarters and since then I have been fascinated by the subject.
After all, it’s huge – today if you google the term, you return 18,000,000 results and that figure changes daily.
With over 50 definitions for engagement is it any wonder that companies spend thousands trying to “do engagement”
A few years ago, there was a shift; to get good engagement you needed to have a great employee experience. But to get this you need to understand people’s experience.
So, how can you do this? Well, you can do a survey to get an indication of how people feel and then create an EX-strategy based on the assumptions concluded from the data. But for me a survey is only ever one side of the story. To truly understand what motivates people you need to go and talk to them.
This is in itself still not enough; you need to follow a robust methodology if you want to have a transformational approach to your EX-strategy.
Here is where design thinking comes in. This has a human centric approach by putting people at the centre and understanding what best experience is to drive a change that is strengths based.
I had done lots of research looking into EX and following People Lab, I came across the 3-part EX by Design course. Having been friends with People Lab since I started my engagement journey, I already knew that it would be a course that would have been designed in a scientific way, and I was not disappointed.
The course, split into three short sessions taking place over a month, takes you through step by step; defining what EX means to you, and then taking an idea, looking at the impact it has on the people in your organisation by creating a persona, and then using the “triple diamond” design thinking to take the idea from ideation to prototype stage across the three sessions.
At the end I had a tangible piece that I could take back to the business to test. The good news being that the work is still taking place being further adapted and evolving so that it works across the organisation.
People Lab for me have always been forward thinking; using research and best practice which can then be adapted to meet your business needs, so I was so excited at the prospect of being able to further consolidate my learning by working with them on secondment.
In the two months since this started, I have seen the approach learnt on the course be used in different scenarios with great success; and am already full of ideas that I can take back to my organisation in a few months’ time.
So, if you are looking at EX and don’t know where to start or have been working on something, or are stuck and want to try a new approach, then I would highly recommend the EX by design course.
The next course is taking bookings now and will start in June 2022.
@Karen
