The power of pause and self-reflection in building connection

In the worlds we all inhabit of pace and priorities, how often do we stop, reflect or check in, seek views and opinions, or apply what we have realised, heard and learnt?

If this pause doesn’t happen, collecting and aligning views, feedback and gaining insight into how people are and feel gets lost in the noise of business as usual. Connection becomes less, at a time when people want more. Data has become a critical component of connection, providing an ability to gain insight, direct effort and activity and manage risk.

Data generated through engagement with employees achieves a number of things, collects diverse and detailed data, connects to each person and if that collection requires active participation, it creates a sense of involvement and belonging.

Connect 2 is a tool developed to create fast, active interaction with employees – in critical mass. It can test and self-assess against a multitude of questions and topics: alignment to values, reactions to behavioural frameworks, inclusivity, or anything where you want employees not just to enter the conversation but to do so by assessing their own stance or alignment. The tool also leads people into action from insight, encouraging them to think about their own behaviours in relation to a topic and how they might get better. The composite data provided as employees engage in the Connect 2 conversations also gives data to inform, challenge and connect strategy, plans and activities. A tool might provide the means to invite employees into high levels of conversation and engagement but critically you want their assessment of their own connection to a topic to result in change and improvement. The tool provides the process, from data to ensuring momentum but in between there is a challenge – to ensure self-assessment does convert to reflection and improvement, after all we all get very skilled at discounting or filtering what others say, never mind our own feedback to ourselves.

In our experience this starts with data, getting individuals to actually and systematically reflect not just what they are doing but how? Do I live the values my organisation supports and how is that being perceived and received? Once data is available the next ingredient is time to hear, or read and then think through:

• What does this mean for me?
• What does it make me want to do?

This can simply be guided reflection, built into the tool, which draws insight from the data and hopefully a few light bulb moments. Finally, we face the challenge of maintaining momentum, ensuring the reflection converts in goals set and on-going feedback collected to track progress and improvement.

Access to what is going on, the views and engagement of your employees is now got to be more than a one-off, one-way survey. Starting a conversation, getting employees to reflect upon their own adoption of organisational wide behaviours or values or even strategies create connection but actively it starts conversations and generates a richness of data.

This article was authored by Jill Jenkinson.