What Mary Poppins Can Teach Us about Facilitating Employee Engagement
Internal communicators, if they are embedded in the organization, have an awesome opportunity to be change agents and bridge builders. They belong to no functional area exclusively, but must be informed about all of them. They have conversations with people and get to tell those stories to others. They observe and advise, and they are a calm, professional presence during crises. In smart organizations, they sit at the table with the senior leaders, where their professional input is valued and respected, but they also have daily access to and rapport with the people who actually make or repair or think up the widgets. In short, they can be Mary Poppins.
In the 1964 movie musical Mary Poppins, the title character is a nanny who magically transforms the lives of a family by being a most unusual nanny to the two children. For an internal communicator, a little Mary Poppins goes a long way in transforming organizational attitude, leadership influence and employee morale and engagement.
In hiring a nanny, let the charges tell you what they need.
In the movie, when Mr. and Mrs. Banks tried to hire a nanny, they went with the traditional approach. Their job description attracted dozens of potential candidates who could bring “tradition, discipline and rules” to the table. Bah! They found the perfect nanny when Mary Poppins responded to the children’s originally trashed advertisement. The kids said what their parents couldn’t articulate: “If you won’t scold and dominate us, we will never give you cause to hate us.”
If your leaders are trying a top-down approach that doesn’t allow for employee input, the employees are going to respond, but not the way you want them to. You need to provide them with a voice. Leaders should ask employees what they want, and then give them as much of it as is feasible. But ultimately, the “charges” need someone on the inside, someone who can be an apostle among them. They need a Mary Poppins. Let them tell your leaders what that looks like for them.
A spoon full of sugar helps the medicine go down.
A communicator, like Mary Poppins, should be both optimistic and realistic. Perhaps the only tenant as important as delivering accurate and timely information (which establishes trust and credibility) is never to deliver bad news without some good news too. This really goes to the point that you can never forget to focus on the “what’s in it for me” question. Of course, sometimes there’s no good news, or it pales in comparison to the bad. But that’s when it’s vital to be completely transparent and ensure that employees understand how it will affect their jobs and their lives. Good news is sugar, but frankness is sometimes just as sweet.
Have some fun.
“In every job that must be done there is an element of fun. You find the fun and - snap! - the job’s a game.” Businesses take themselves way too seriously most of the time. Certainly there are industries that impact public health and safety, and where millions of dollars or hundreds of lives are at stake, but every company has a bit of tunnel vision when it comes to getting the job done. I’m not suggesting you make serious objectives a game (although sometimes, that’s completely appropriate). Rather, as an internal communicator, you can ensure that every achievement is celebrated, that the behaviors your leadership values are rewarded, and – most importantly – that employees understand what they do is important. The “fun” part doesn’t have to be a huge company-wide black tie affair. It can be something really small, like having the leadership team personally greet employees as they come to work after a milestone is met. I used to work for an executive who would give individuals or teams “10 second celebrations” by publicly acknowledging an achievement during meetings. Don’t underestimate small gestures in creating an environment of engagement. When employees are rewarded for success, they are more likely to feel connected to the big picture and to work together as a team. And best of all, as communicator, you get to drive the fun part. If you ensure leaders commit to recognition and celebration, ultimately the workforce will be committed not just to the next mission but to the people they work with and the customers they serve.
Tell stories that inspire action.
Before the children go on an outing with their father to his bank, Mary Poppins tells the story of the bird lady, who sells birdseed for tuppence on the steps of a nearby church. The story is told through song and is so compelling to the children they are determined to give the bird lady their money, which sets in motion a series of events that brings everyone involved a new perspective. I’m not suggesting you sing to the employees, but you can find numerous ways to tell stories that inspire and motivate and align employees to a mission or goal. Storytelling is very powerful – whether it’s a newsletter article or a blog post or a video, as a communicator, you have in your toolbox a variety of ways to touch people by telling them stories about themselves as individuals and as an organization, about where they are and where they’re going and how they can get there. You have your messages and your talking points. You’ve worked hard on them and gotten through rounds of executive approvals. If you just read them off, I guarantee you what employees will hear is “BLAH BLAH BLAH.” Make the messages personal by telling a story, and you can move mountains.
Get it done, then get out of the way
At the end of the movie, the children are off in the park, flying a kite happily with their parents, who are savoring the moment of family harmony. They are all so happy that they don’t even acknowledge the contributions of Mary Poppins
Parrot Umbrella: That's gratitude for you. Didn't even say goodbye!
Mary Poppins: No, they didn't.
Parrot Umbrella: Look at them! You know, they think more of their father than they do of you!
Mary Poppins: That's as it should be.
When the job has been done, it’s time to step back and let the organization take care of itself. If you’ve done your job of building bridges and communities, the leadership can take it from there.
This is perhaps the hardest part. You can’t let yourself get carried away and think that you’re actually the one leading people. Your role is to facilitate and direct and connect and provide the glue to the pieces that are already there…and then step back. You have to be personally committed and completely invested in being a catalyst to change and success, but that also means you’ll care very deeply about the people you work with to get there. When you sense it’s time to move on, don’t let sentiment muddle your thinking (as Mary Poppins herself says to her umbrella.)
I once had a job as the sole communicator at a nuclear power plant. I had the most fun of my professional career there because I got a chance to be involved in everything. But most importantly, I had great, wise execs who trusted me and let me be Mary Poppins. They let me help them lead a large employee base to better performance, engagement and alignment. The role I eventually played went way beyond communications, but being the internal communicator is what gave me that opportunity in the first place. When we had achieved success, I had to remind myself that I wasn’t the magic. The leaders and the employees who made themselves a strong organization were the magic. And to this day, though they probably don’t give me a second thought, they still are magical.
That’s as it should be.
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