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The Woodies have a blog. It’s a kind of collective. Not sure we’re about to start a revolution baby, but we might kindle a small debate or two and perhaps raise a smile. Anyway, rather than just blogging corporate Woodreed by fielding our top Woodie (as so many other companies seem to do in a thinly veiled attempt at impressing with their profundity), we wanted all our individual voices to be heard. An agency’s most valuable assets are its people after all. Everyone’s got something to say here and with us everyone’s ideas and opinions matter.

Each week someone different will be blogging. It's mostly about stuff that rocks our world as well as the flipside – the things that just don't cut it with us. We'll blog about inside and outside – inside this glorious industry where we work and outside in the real world.
It's a bit of an experiment, so go with us on this one.

Hope you enjoy.

Friday 21 March 2014

Accentuate the positive... eliminate the negative

We recently asked the workforce of a client of ours who has admittedly been going through some tough times (really tough) in recent years "What 3 words spring to mind when describing the organisation?" 

 The words they came up with were overwhelmingly negative. No great surprise, we knew the workforce was likely to be in a fairly low place.

We also asked "What makes you proud to work here?"  We then analysed the results in terms of what they said. Over 80% of the comments were positive in tone with just over 10% negative and the balance neutral. 

Despite the negativity there was a hunger and a will to find something positive to say - and most people managed to do just that. It's an interesting insight into the need we have to feel part of something which we can align ourselves to and be a proud of.

 That's where an organisation with the integrity to live the values grounded in their brand comes into play surely?
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3 comments:

  1. Dave Wilson24 March 2014 at 09:20

    Just by giving them the chance to voice their opinions in the first place probably gave them a subliminal confidence.
    Some managers in major brands don't even ask their employees any questions.

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  2. Unknown24 March 2014 at 09:36

    Paul Herbert at Symbolist made the following point when I posted on his blog: "people have a desire to rationalize past decisions - they want to believe they made a good choice for working at the company. Asking them to list the negatives kicks in cognitive dissonance and makes them feel anxious, uneasy and at odd - creating a problem in their minds. Asking for positive attributes will help them find balance between some of the negative stuff going on and their own decision making - helping them regain some balance. We want to think we're smart and did the right thing. Now we just have to get management to follow up on the negatives and continue to promote and leverage the positives." See it in full at http://www.symbolist.com/blog/2014/03/friday-thought-employee-engagement-eeyore/#comment-1296325391

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  3. Dave Wilson24 March 2014 at 10:00

    It always comes down to the same reliable old sentiment. Always find a positive!!

    In the same way, here in the Woodreed creative department, we are probably sometimes a little over sensitive, but we always react constructively when our critics find the positives first !!

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