The team "NORBIT" This also happens. But unlike other IT areas, it is especially important for us to maintain a harmonious atmosphere, because without it, well-coordinated work will not work. We analyzed the weaknesses and realized that the main reason for all the roughness in the team is the inability to give feedback to colleagues (and do it delicately). Then we suggested that the employees use children's blocks for this. We will tell you about their reaction and the first results of our experiment in this post.
In any company (and ours is no exception) there are always many potentially conflict situations. For example, one of the employees is often late for meetings, allows himself not to prepare for meetings, but no one tells him that this is disrespect for the entire team, because he is a professional in his field, or because any criticism towards him can turn big conflict.
It happens that the HR manager cannot find an employee for a vacant position in any way, and the project team working "for themselves and for that guy" sends reproaches to the HR department.
A young boss makes everyone work hard, and his employees want a normal work-life balance, but do not understand how to convey information to the boss without risking ruining the relationship.
It would seem that in all such situations, you can just take it and talk openly. But not everyone has the courage to be open about an uncomfortable situation. One is silent, because he is not sure that he is right, and the other cannot find the right words so as not to inflate the conflict.
After all, we are all different, we all have a different background, different education, different goals in life and methods of achieving them. Few have read books about emotional intelligence and empathy, but many have never heard of it. One way or another, a culture of frank and at the same time delicate conversation in a team does not in itself emerge, and someone should start this practice and constantly support it. Until this happens, the problem is not discussed, stress increases, people burn out or simply work ineffectively and ... it can end with anything.
To overcome this problem, we decided to give people a comfortable feedback tool and, with its help, make teamwork more harmonious. Children's cubes were chosen as a physical carrier of feedback, because they evoke warm associations and do not carry either negativity or aggression.
The mechanics are as follows: if you want to convey to a colleague that he tortured everyone with constant delays in his tasks, you choose the appropriate situation from the many cubes at the reception (it says “We really appreciate your work and are ready to discuss with you how best to get into deadlines ") and put it on the employee's desktop. You can also do this anonymously, for example, before or after work.
It is important that employees do not compose themselves what to write on the cube, but choose from ready-made formulations - they are written by a communications specialist and with minimal probability can provoke a negative reaction. It is clear that the phrase “We don’t want to work until late evening” will be less effective compared to “We are also concerned about the success of the project, but my family is waiting for me at home in the evening, and without her support I will not be able to work effectively on this project” ...
Using ready-made phrases, at the same time, we planned to solve another problem - to show people the correct formulations of feedback and teach them using these examples.
How we introduced good cubes "NORBIT"
We decided to pilot this idea in one of the company's large departments in order to assess the possible pros and cons of our chosen approach.
The leader gathered his area leaders and told them about the idea. Obviously, the launch of such a technology carries personal risks for each employee and especially for the manager, because if tomorrow his desk is littered with cubes with feedback, it will be necessary to react to this. It was important that the management level of the department understood and assessed the possible consequences and could explain (give feedback) to all employees about the benefits of this project.
In general, the initiative was supported and supplemented with their ideas:
- select several of the most typical problems of the pilot department and "sharpen" the feedback specifically for them;
- make cubes not only for professional issues, but also for everyday ones, which are no less important in the real workflow;
- make cubes not only with corrective feedback, but also with positive feedback, so that you can thus praise a colleague.
As a result, the following list appeared:
| Cube type | Feedback type | Suggested wording of the feedback | What we want to say with a cube |
| Domestic | Negative | It will be very nice if you clean up your desk. | We need to clean up the table. The mess gets in the way of other colleagues. |
| Domestic | Positive | This dress suits you very much | Tell the man he looks great. |
| Domestic | Negative | Please turn off the sound on your mobile and be quieter when talking on the phone. | The sound on the phone in the office disturbs everyone. Too loud conversations in open-space interfere with everyone. |
| Project | Neutral | You criticize - offer! | It's enough to criticize, suggest a solution. |
| Project | Positive | , ! ! | . |
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| ! | In order to understand where and what to strive for, you need to fix the goals in the plan. For RP - feedback on planning errors. For participants - feedback on "non-participation" in planning. |
We worked a little more on the wording, bought cubes from Auchan and sent an information letter to all 120 employees of the department (and a copy was printed in poster format and hung next to the box with the figures).
Text of the letter
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First results
We expected anything, but the initiative received surprisingly fast support. A lot of feedback figures were distributed immediately after the letter was sent, and that was already at 18:00. By 22 o'clock, out of 60 pieces in the basket, less than half remained.
The first days of the experiment passed quite calmly. Interesting:
- we had three figures of each type and the most scarce
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The first three weeks showed that the "demand" for the figures decreased from the initial one, but in general, about a third of the figures are in stable use. It's funny that when everyone's favorite in the office broke down - the coffee machine, and she got her yellow top hat.
Additionally, the need for two more figures was formed:
- about being late - "Please warn me if you don't have time to arrive on time";
- about tough humor - "You have very cool jokes, but sometimes they hurt."
Unexpected results and conclusions
The experiment can be considered successful: the cubes were accepted by the team and made it possible to quickly remove some long-standing problems. We planned to expand the technology to the entire company, but then a pandemic broke out and all employees went to work remotely, so the continuation will follow.
We will be glad if our cubes inspire you to experiment and share your results. If such an experiment started in your company, what would you suggest to write on the figures?