This little story illustrates what can happen when there is a gap between employees' beliefs about what their leaders are doing and what the leaders think about how their troops are doing.
On a typical sunny afternoon at a youth summer camp somewhere in North America, about 80 energetic teenagers were divided into two armies.
Each army was given half of the large, hilly, tree-filled camp as their "territory" and a flag to plant secretly somewhere in its territory. The goal in the game called "Capture the Flag" was to sneak across enemy lines, capture the opponent's flag and sneak it back across the boundary into your territory without being captured (touched) by enemy troops and put into "prison".
For those who immersed themselves in the game, it was exhilarating and full of intrigue, exploration and playful anarchy. For those who were not engaged, it was really boring and became an opportunity to sneak off somewhere to enjoy a little peace and quiet.
Victory was achieved by a select few intrepid souls who heroically applied their gifts of speed, diversion and guile (and just plain luck at being in the right place at the right time) to foil the opposing army's defences and spirit the captured enemy flag home.
Most participants did not know what they should be doing to help win. They were either far from the action or tended to wander around aimlessly. Some of the troops were even grateful to spend most of their time chilling out in "prison", happy to be ineffective and unchallenged. Some did not learn that the game was won until someone told them - perhaps the following day.
--Does this sound like any organisations you know?
"Capture the Flag" parallels organisations that are blind to employee perceptions or those that do a sub-optimal job of informing their troops about their plans and directions.
In these organisations, leaders may not know what the troops are doing or how they feel about participating in the game. They may wonder why the troops are not more engaged or why they don't feel a greater sense of urgency. Some leaders may rely too much on their most talented combatants to engage the enemy and come out victorious through speed an innovation - while risking burnout.
Employees may believe their leaders are so focused on beating the competition that they turn a deaf ear to the needs and ideas of their troops. Managers may be uncertain about how to use resources to gain advantage and wonder what role they should be playing to help win the game. And most members of these organisations are not sure if they are winning the game or not.
So what is the moral of the story? Disconnection is not good, in personal relationships, in businesses or in society. It is natural and appropriate for leaders and managers to try to get the most out of their people. Ironically, though, it is often best for them to first look into their people to find out how they feel, what their perceptions are, what they value and what might be done about it.
To reconnect leaders and troops, there is a range of profitable, engaging actions that may be taken. These range from all-employee engagement surveys to focus groups with representative employee levels to get the pulse of the organisation, clear, well-crafted and authentic communications from top leadership - especially during turbulent times of change, "town hall"-style events designed for open discussion of organisational realities and creative reward and recognition gestures that show appreciation for valued employee contributions of time and talent.
Brian Carlsen is an executive director of learning solutions at the APM Group and co-author of "Attract, Engage and Retain Top Talent: 50 Plus One Strategies Used by the Best." The APM Group has been helping to build high-performance organisations in Thailand since 1992.