Friday, July 1, 2011

Do You Have Engaged Workgroups?


Can you "strongly agree" with the following eight questions?




1. The leadership in our organization can explicitly state the value our company brings to customers, in one or two sentences.


2. The leadership in our organization proactively helps employees understand the value we bring to customers.


3. Employees in our organization can explicitly state the value we bring to customers, in one or two sentences.

4. Employees in our organization seem aligned to the company's core values (what we stand for).

5. Employees in our organization are empowered to share with customers what value we bring, in their own words and style.

6. Overall, employees in our organization do a good job of communicating what value we provide, with each other and with customers.

7. In our organization, Marketing and HR work together to ensure the value we provide is communicated consistently across all possible channels of customer contact.

8. Our organization does a good job of measuring employee engagement (alignment, culture, etc.).

If you can "strongly agree," you're on your way to connecting your company's values with the values of your customers. A strong culture is the cornerstone of a strong brand.

If you can't say "yes!" to them all, you have some work to do. Here's how to start developing engaged workgroups:

Help employees understand your brand message. And make it simple, it's your "story."

Give employees the tools to communicate the message effectively and consistently.

Show employees you trust them to represent your brand in the marketplace. Heck, Zappo's lets employees step into a video booth to shoot their own commercials promoting cool new products they endorse!

You can try to influence what your brand becomes through advertising, design and marketing, But it's ultimately decided by those who interact with your culture.