Building community and activating the employee population is a frequent goal in many organizations seeking to boost employee satisfaction and morale. By involving your employees in the communications process and putting them front and center – be it in the form of pictures and/or stories on the intranet, portal or employee publication cover or home – can be a positive step in the right direction.
However, there are good and… errrr, stupid ways of activating employees. Steve Crescenzo recently wrote a hilarious blog, Ask a stupid question… about playing the ‘roving reporter’ within the company and asking stupid questions of employees that could only lead to stupid answers.
Among Steve’s favorite ‘stupid’ queries:
- What can always be found in your refrigerator?
- What book is on your nightstand right now?
- · Who is your Greatest American Hero?
- If you could be a candy bar, what kind of candy bar would you be?
To the latter, I think I would have to say a Skor bar. I have no idea what’s in it nor comprehend its preservation effects on my inner organs but it so dam good! (My inner organs – except maybe the pancreas – also agree).
I’ve come across some pretty stupid answers in my days too. Particularly answers from senior managers and executives to business analysis questions about the intranet and its value to the organization. A sampling of this stupidity…
- A Director of Human Resources: “I don’t understand why we need an intranet… I mean we have a pretty good phone system that cost us a lot!”
- A CEO of a major financial services company with a horribly pathetic intranet that barely earns the title ‘intranet’: “I think we’ve invested too much in technology already.”
- An SVP of Communications for one of the U.S.’s biggest energy utilities who has an email address and uses it… sort of. He has his assistant print every email so he can hand write responses to each and then snail mail replies back to the writer. This is the SVP of COMMUNICATIONS…!
- An intranet manager who put an animated cartoon caricature of a jogging Bill Clinton on the intranet HR home page of a Canadian company. Said the intranet manager when asked the value to the business of an animated U.S. President, “But he’s sooo cute!”
Oh there’s plenty ‘stupid’ out there…. heard any good ones lately?
