Every organisation I talk to runs an engagement survey. And every organisation I talk to already knows it isn't working.

They don't always say it out loud. But when I say it in a meeting, people nod. Sometimes they laugh, the kind of laugh that means finally, someone said it. So let's say it.

Everybody measures engagement. Almost nobody shifts it.

The engagement survey goes out. People answer. The results come back as a slide deck, a heat map and an action plan with words like "communication" and "wellbeing" on it.

Then nothing reaches the person at the desk. Nobody sits down with them and says, here's what we heard, and here's what happens next.

The insight sits on a slide. The person who answered never finds out it mattered.

The engagement survey is now costing you something

This is the part we don't talk about enough.

Every round of asking without a visible response teaches people that speaking up changes nothing. So the next round, they say a little less. They play it safe....

Most emotional culture work can never prove it worked. This story can.

When Susannah King formed a brand-new team at Amazon, she decided from day one to build its emotional culture on purpose. Then she did the rare thing. She measured it, and she invited a business school to measure the outcomes independently. What follows is her story, the numbers that moved, and a handful of moves you can steal for your own team this week.

A confession, and a decision

Susannah opened her session with us by admitting something most leaders keep hidden.

"I don't know why I chose a career in HR and learning and development, because I'm very introverted."

Thirty years across finance, healthcare, communications and HR, now heading a global product team spanning eleven countries and more than 450 sites, and she still felt the flutter of imposter syndrome before she spoke. That honesty is exactly why the rest of her story lands. This was not theory. This was one leader choosing, on purpose, to put ...

Introducing the first ever ECD Qualified Leaders in the world 👏 

We're proud to share a bright spot with you all. Last week, we delivered the first-ever ECD Foundations Workshop to a group of in-house leaders of a local Government Agency in New Zealand.

This culminated over 18 months of design, prototyping and testing with the fantastic assistance of Elephant Riders, Lotty Roberts, Steven Hargreaves and Lorissa Garcia. 

There have been so many twists, turns, surprises, setbacks, uncomfortable moments, highs, aha moments and a giant pivot along this journey.

From September, our global community of ECD Certified Consultants will deliver these ECD workshops in over 20 countries.

What exactly are these new ECD Qualified Leaders Workshops?

These highly interactive and hands-on workshops qualify your leaders to apply The ECD to create more emotionally aware leaders and teams.

Tailored for training in-house organisations and business leaders, an ECD Certified Consultant facilitates eac...