You might say, “Wow, this is big. Changing employee experience is a significant undertaking and requires a lot of investment.” But maybe that is just a perception.
Let’s start with a basic axiom of clinical psychology: "If you could see the world the way I see it, you’d understand why I behave the way I do.” Walking a day in their shoes might be very enlightening. Asking them directly will point to the main irritants that most likely will require simple changes to make an improvement. It can be as simple as free Wi-Fi on site. Or the ability to decide when to work from home. Or time off not only for new parents but also for those who have to care for their elderly parents.
Likewise, if you want to change a human being’s behavior, you must change how they see the world. Employees see the business and the world as employees. What if you make them see the world as an owner, or regulator, or supplier, etc.? Giving them the freedom and authority to make improvements will go even further.
None of us want systems where everyone is judged and compared against an unattainable and ever-moving goalpost, where the decisions about pay, promotions, and successions are made by a select few behind closed doors, where the limited transparency of big organizational decisions is intended to keep the “troops” in the dark and out of control. We all have the same basic needs: We want to be paid attention to. We want to be respected and listened to. We want to be doing something meaningful, satisfying, and have a sense that we matter. We want to be loved.
If we all want the same thing, why can’t we tap into the mirrored reciprocation logic and take the first step and offer it up back? And go first.
The big obstacle is our human nature of assessing uncertainty. Daniel Kahneman, Nobel Prize winner in behavioral economics coined it as the principles of loss aversion. We would rather not go first (or invest in growth, or loosen control, or pay equally, etc.) than look bad in someone’s eyes, or lose face, or look foolish at the board meeting.
But what if it works?
Albert Einstein said there are five ascending levels of intelligence: smart, intelligent, brilliant, genius, and simple. Why do you need simple? So you can understand it. And then you know what to do.