How to Keep Employees Focused on Company Goals: The Importance of Water-Cooler Conversations
Remember when it was popular to meet around the water cooler to have a casual conversation with coworkers about sports or the latest episode of a favorite television program? Today a water-cooler conversation offers so much more. Now it is a tool for management to keep in touch with employees and stay connected.
The Purpose of Water-Cooler Conversations
Most managers realize that in order to help employees feel engaged in their work and the company is to keep the lines of communication open. But too often they neglect to utilize this important tool on a regular basis. We often see professional Networking Events in Gold Coast that are known as water-cooler conversations. They save all their big conversations for staff meetings or annual performance review time.
Naturally the problem becomes that employees feel out of touch with the business plan or where they fit in. Too often opportunities to exchange ideas or words of encouragement slip past because managers hunker down at their desks and don’t take the time to engage employees on a more informal basis. That’s where water-cooler conversations come in handy.
Water-cooler conversations merely describe the informal process of engaging employees in conversation as a way to have them share their views. Stimulating conversation and ideas by asking questions or sharing a tidbit of information enables managers to keep their finger on the pulse of the operation as well as to reinforce the company’s vision and goal setting. However, it also gives employees the sense that someone is listening and that they are truly valued.
How to Use Water-Cooler Conversation
Utilizing water-cooler conversations to reinforce company ideals and to casually gather feedback isn’t a difficult task. It’s a matter of taking the time to do it, whether that means managing by walking around or creating a reason for people to drop by.
As Dan Bobinski describes in his article on the subject one manager he knew of would often engage coworkers in casual conversation about what was going on when they would enter her office to help themselves to a sweet treat from her candy bowl. She purposely used it as a jumping off point to say, “Oh, by the way…”
And while it’s not necessary to run out and purchase a couple pounds of chocolate in order to entice others into conversation, it helps to illustrate the point. It is up to managers to make the first move. It is on their shoulders to lay the ground work for motivating employees and stimulating their drive to help the company and themselves to succeed. It is a manager’s responsibility for keeping employees on the right track. And if having a little chat around the water cooler can help keep everyone focused in the same direction then it just makes sense for managers to stop occasionally to refresh themselves.
