how  to…    

encourage  employee  participation  

in  your  community Maria Ogneva

@themaria!

What’s  all  this  engagement  talk  about?

And  why  is  it  good  for  community?

1.   Scale  community  &  lead  by  example

And  why  is  it  good  for  community?

1.   Scale  community  &  lead  by  example

2.   Uncover  hidden  knowledge

And  why  is  it  good  for  community?

1.   Scale  community  &  lead  by  example

2.   Uncover  hidden  knowledge

3.   Increase  legitimacy  of  answers

And  why  is  it  good  for  community?

1.   Scale  community  &  lead  by  example

2.   Uncover  hidden  knowledge

3.   Increase  legitimacy  of  answers

4.   Find  beEer  solutions  

And  why  is  it  good  for  community?

1.   Scale  community  &  lead  by  example

2.   Uncover  hidden  knowledge

3.   Increase  legitimacy  of  answers

4.   Find  beEer  solutions  

5.   Happier  people

“87%  of  American  workers  are  disengaged  or  highly  disengaged”

-­‐‑  Gallup  Poll,  2013

How  can  you  ask  them  to  do  more?

hEps://www.flickr.com/photos/michaelheiss/8710606842

Here’s  how

10  steps  to  employee  engagement  in  your  

community

1.   Have  real  empathy

What’s  in  it  for  me?

2.   Provide  guardrails

Rules  give  freedom  to  do  what’s  right

•  Align  with  team  leads  first

•  Team-­‐‑specific,  relevant  training

•  Bake  it  into  onboarding

•  Hands-­‐‑on  challenges

•  Maybe  even  gamification?

•  Get  clear  on  mutual  expectations  and  roles

GeEing  everyone  on  the  same  page

3.   Have  a  clear  process

Escalation What  to  do  in  times  of  crisis  /  outage

Mutual  expectations

Make  it  easy,  bite-­‐‑sized 4.  

How  do  you  eat  an  elephant?

5.   Celebrate  and  reward

“They tried to kill us. They failed. Let’s eat” - Jewish proverb

Make  rewards  meaningful

6.   Help  leaders  lead  the  way

Formal leaders Execs & team leads

What’s important to them?

How will this reach their objectives? How will this make them the hero?

How can you make it easy?

How can you remove risk?

Informal leaders Take cue from existing behavior

What do they value?

How can you make them the hero?

Tap into their influence

Help them expand it

7.   Create  conditions  for   ownership  &  participation

Let  teams  own  the  outcomes  &  methods

Strike  a  balance

Can’t  be  too  loosely  structured…  or  too  rigid

8.   Use  the  backchannel

PSST…

Hold  each  other  responsible

But  don’t  throw  each  other  under  the  bus

9.   Have  a  digital  workspace

Source:  Adobe

hEps://www.flickr.com/photos/thelivelygirl/5261389796

Deprivation  diets

Focus  on  creating  good  “keystone”  habits

Focus  on  method,  not  just  goals 10.  

Your  employees  will  be  like  this:

Caveat:

Don’t  overwhelm  the  customer  J

Remember  to  let  your  customers  breathe!

"ʺA  leader  is  best  when  people  barely  know  he  exists;  when  his  work  is  done,  his  aim  fulfilled,  they  will  say:  we  did  it  

ourselves.” -­‐‑ancient  Chinese  philosopher  Laozi  

hEps://www.flickr.com/photos/63493383@N02/6355268177/

Community  is  a  leadership  discipline…

THANK  YOU!  

KEEP IN TOUCH! @themaria!