Recapturing Employee Imagination

I was talking with a good friend of mine the other day, the CEO of a 100,000+ employee organization. We were talking about the challenge of designing space for spontaneous meetings in the midst of a pandemic which has most office building shuttered.

It's somewhat ironic that while many organizations are boasting productivity numbers like never before -- efficiency is through the roof -- there's a big question about longer-term innovation efforts, and whether they will thrive or languish amidst the lack of spontaneous connection and the erosion of already-weak "bridge relationships."

All this, despite the fact that for many, it's actually easier to do productivity-oriented, routine work than ever before. One would think with all this spare time on their hands, employees would be coming up with all sorts of new ideas and uses for their newfound-bandwidth.

But no. One problem is, there's not really extra bandwidth. The pressures on working families, especially those with kids now schooling at home, are real.

But I think there's actually a deeper problem, one that's only thinly veiled by the logistical challenges many workers face while working from home: most employers fail to capture the imagination of their workers! Folks are dutifully fulfilling their responsibilities, often in less time than ever before, and then clocking out, without giving the company another thought.

I wonder whether it's because there's little motivation to go above and beyond; and whose responsibility is that? I believe it's the job of senior leaders to cultivate an environment that causes employees to summon greater energy, enthusiasm, and curiosity. To take risks. To try new things, that probably won't work, out of sheer infatuation with the possibility.

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