Speaker 1: Hey, this is Chris with Hacking your Leadership. On today's
Speaker 1: discussion on employee engagement. I want to talk about the
Speaker 1: role that tools like augmented reality, virtual reality, the metaverse,
Speaker 1: you know, the all these kind of the futuristic tools
Speaker 1: that have become you know, part of our culture and
Speaker 1: our zeitgeist right now. I want to talk about the
Speaker 1: way that these will change how leaders interact with teams.
Speaker 1: And I think it's important to talk about because you know,
Speaker 1: all of those tools there is a you know, a
Speaker 1: seemingly productivity slash business component to them, and then there's
Speaker 1: an entertainment slash fund component to them. And I think
Speaker 1: on a lot of teams and a lot of organizations
Speaker 1: and a lot of leaders, that kind of split is
Speaker 1: is looked at from purposes of work versus not work.
Speaker 1: And so if I'm really into those types of tools,
Speaker 1: and I'm a leader of people, then I might you know,
Speaker 1: play video games on them at home. I might you know,
Speaker 1: watch movies on them, you know, when I not at work.
Speaker 1: But when I'm interacting with my team, I'm looking at
Speaker 1: it from the perspective of, Okay, how do how do
Speaker 1: I how do I use these tools to interact with
Speaker 1: my teams from a from a standpoint of productivity or
Speaker 1: you know, getting more work done. And I think there
Speaker 1: can be an overlap here where the way that a
Speaker 1: lot of these tools can impact leaders and teams positively
Speaker 1: is in how leaders use these tools not just to
Speaker 1: drive more productivity, but from a standpoint of how do
Speaker 1: we drive better culture and engagement and fun.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that there's so much in technology that
Speaker 2: we can utilize to do more things to build community,
Speaker 2: to build culture, to personalize the workplace, to be able
Speaker 2: to recognize great work in a much more unique and
Speaker 2: personal way. I just think that there's there's a lot
Speaker 2: of things that I think about all the tech that
Speaker 2: we use to just mess with each other, to create memes,
Speaker 2: to to make pictures, dance around, to do face swap,
Speaker 2: like all these funny things that we do in this
Speaker 2: space of technology. When you take now in AR and
Speaker 2: VR into the workplace, we tend to only think about
Speaker 2: it from like how do we use this to be
Speaker 2: more productive at work? And I think there's a big
Speaker 2: space here to say like, well, how can we use
Speaker 2: this to actually build better culture and make it more
Speaker 2: personal and have more fun with the team. And when
Speaker 2: you're thinking about employee engagement. Those are the types of
Speaker 2: things that I think we overlook and just spend some
Speaker 2: more time digging into from a leadership standpoint. And so
Speaker 2: I think there's something that we're just now at the
Speaker 2: beginning of what could this possibly look like. But as
Speaker 2: these technologies roll out into our everyday kind of work days,
Speaker 2: that that's when we need to start to figure out,
Speaker 2: like what can we do to utilize them to either
Speaker 2: create more engagement or more interaction amongst each other in
Speaker 2: a fun and engaging way. I think that's the power
Speaker 2: of some of this technology.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm thinking back to, you know, the probably almost
Speaker 1: twenty years ago now, which is crazy to think, when
Speaker 1: the Nintendo We first came out, it's probably O six
Speaker 1: oh seven somewhere in that neighborhood. And I was with
Speaker 1: a team of people who we all created our own
Speaker 1: you know Nintendo We, the WE little person that you create,
Speaker 1: and we made it look like ourselves, and we did
Speaker 1: team building exercises where we would do you know, the
Speaker 1: WE fitness stuff, and we'd have competitions for different sports
Speaker 1: and you were playing with your little little you know
Speaker 1: WE character that you created, and it wasn't It wasn't
Speaker 1: you know, related to productivity or the business. It was
Speaker 1: just kind of having fun and it wasn't presented as
Speaker 1: team building. It was just kind of like, hey, you
Speaker 1: want to challenge somebody that you work alongside to do this.
Speaker 1: That builds relationships and camaraderie teamwork, and that leads to
Speaker 1: better productivity because when you get along with your teammates,
Speaker 1: you become more collaborative with your teammates, and then better
Speaker 1: work gets done. So you know, this is this has
Speaker 1: been happening forever, like there's always new technology and there
Speaker 1: are always leaders who will you know, gravitate towards that
Speaker 1: technology anyway, because that's who they are. The leaders who
Speaker 1: can do that and then take the next step of saying,
Speaker 1: how can I integrate this within my team from a
Speaker 1: standpoint of, you know, increasing the way people engage with
Speaker 1: each other, not to increase productivity, but to increase the
Speaker 1: way people engage with each other, knowing that the increase
Speaker 1: in productivity will eventually come. That's kind of the sweet
Speaker 1: spot there. So I want to talk about some of
Speaker 1: the ways leaders can do this with their teams, But
Speaker 1: first I'm gonna get up over sponsors. All Right, if
Speaker 1: you're a leader of people and you've been in the
Speaker 1: workforce for you know, let's say five or six years
Speaker 1: or more at least, you've undoubtedly been in situations where
Speaker 1: a thing that could been fun ended up not being
Speaker 1: fun because it was presented as a team building exercise
Speaker 1: or as a kind of a top down, structured way
Speaker 1: of you know, getting people to have fun with each
Speaker 1: other that wasn't organic or didn't feel organic. And you've
Speaker 1: probably also been in situations where you've had interactions that
Speaker 1: did feel organic because they were organic. If you're a
Speaker 1: leader of people, it's very important that you don't cross
Speaker 1: that line. It's very important that when you're trying to
Speaker 1: integrate things like this or or you know, use these
Speaker 1: tools to you know, interact with your team better, that
Speaker 1: it doesn't start from I'm the leader, this is what
Speaker 1: we're all gonna do now. It starts from a, hey,
Speaker 1: do you want to work with me on this? With
Speaker 1: one person, a crowd draws a crowd. And so if
Speaker 1: you can work with a person, or you know, a
Speaker 1: single person or two or three people that you already
Speaker 1: have a close relationship with, and other people can kind
Speaker 1: of see what's going on, and they want to get involved.
Speaker 1: That kind of organic growth is what leads to the
Speaker 1: the camraadering the team building you're looking for you standing
Speaker 1: in front of the room and saying we're all gonna
Speaker 1: put these goggles on and do an exercise together. That
Speaker 1: doesn't work because they go into it thinking there's an
Speaker 1: ulterior motive. Your employees will think they're doing this because
Speaker 1: they want us to engage with people that we wouldn't
Speaker 1: normally engage with. And what I'm saying is, as a leader,
Speaker 1: your job is to get people to engage with people
Speaker 1: that they wouldn't normally engage with, but to have it
Speaker 1: be organic, which is to say, create the space that
Speaker 1: allows it to happen and then know that it will happen.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I think take advantage of the technology and
Speaker 2: what it's capable of doing. I think again, I've been
Speaker 2: on virtual calls and things like that, and we use
Speaker 2: different technologies all over the place for different meetings and stuff,
Speaker 2: and I think sometimes we only use a small percentage
Speaker 2: of the technology and the tool just to accomplish the
Speaker 2: thing that we're trying to accomplish in the moment, versus
Speaker 2: thinking about how could we utilize this to be more interactive,
Speaker 2: to be more creative, to be able to recognize people
Speaker 2: in a different way, to engage with people in a
Speaker 2: different way. And I think that's something that thinking about,
Speaker 2: you know, ar VR, metaverse, you know, virtual communication platforms,
Speaker 2: whatever they might be, there are ways to utilize them
Speaker 2: that will allow you to engage with teams in a
Speaker 2: different way and will create the spaces that I think
Speaker 2: will make it more fun and and and and more
Speaker 2: of an opportunity to to you know, make people feel
Speaker 2: seen and heard and you know, celebrated for the work
Speaker 2: that they're doing and not just the monotonous of we
Speaker 2: only use these things for these certain ways, for these
Speaker 2: certain reasons. So that would be my only other thoughts
Speaker 2: and challenge on this, and something that I'm constantly thinking
Speaker 2: about is how can we use this technology to maybe
Speaker 2: interact with a workforce and with teams that are very
Speaker 2: comfortable in this technology in other areas, uh and maybe
Speaker 2: have you know, a higher expectation of engagement outside of
Speaker 2: work because of the way that people utilize the technology,
Speaker 2: and then a lower element of engagement in work because
Speaker 2: we only use the bare minimums of the technology that
Speaker 2: we have.
Speaker 1: Right, and they are self imposed restrictions too. Like if
Speaker 1: we're using the bare minimums, it's because we have said, oh,
Speaker 1: this doesn't belong here. This is a work environment, not
Speaker 1: a this it's we're trying to define it in advance,
Speaker 1: and we're limiting ourselves in terms of what our teams
Speaker 1: are capable of doing. If we just kind of like
Speaker 1: you know, took the gloves off and you know, threw
Speaker 1: the rule book out and said Okay, here's what you
Speaker 1: can't do, it's more like, this is what we have
Speaker 1: to get done today. How we get there can be
Speaker 1: as fun and engaging or as you know, boring and
Speaker 1: unengaging as we want it to be, and it's completely
Speaker 1: within our control as leaders to make it go the
Speaker 1: way that we want to go, knowing that the outcomes
Speaker 1: will be better if it is fun and engaging and
Speaker 1: people feel recognized for the work that they're doing and
Speaker 1: using the technology to do it is a great way
Speaker 1: to do it. You know, before a lot of this
Speaker 1: technology came out, I remember feeling like, as a leader,
Speaker 1: you know, struggling to find ways of recognizing people that
Speaker 1: were different, recognizing people that it wasn't just the same
Speaker 1: ways that we recognize people, and with a lack of technology,
Speaker 1: you can feel limited in terms of the ways you
Speaker 1: can do that with the resources that you have available
Speaker 1: to you. The technology that is available to us now
Speaker 1: and that will continue to grow, opens up so many
Speaker 1: doors for how we can meet people where they are
Speaker 1: and and and recognize them and reward them and you know,
Speaker 1: kind of hoist them up on pedestals in front of
Speaker 1: their teammates in ways that we've never done before. That
Speaker 1: that will feel different and that will be great at
Speaker 1: at kind of creating that engagement and that that buy
Speaker 1: into the work that has to be done because they
Speaker 1: they got the single the most important thing they need
Speaker 1: to get out of any interaction, which is it made
Speaker 1: them feel good, made them feel good to be there.
Speaker 1: If you can get that out of your team, the
Speaker 1: lessons of the interaction or of the training will land automatically.
Speaker 1: All you have to do is make sure they feel
Speaker 1: good about themselves while they're there, and the rest will
Speaker 1: fall into place. The technology is the way to do that,
Speaker 1: and the leaders who use the technology in this way
Speaker 1: are the ones that will get better outcomes. Thank you
Speaker 1: for joining us in this episode on employee engagement we'll
Speaker 1: see you next Thursday. For the next one, you have
Speaker 1: a great day.