What keeps you awake at night? What challenges are haunting your mind? Life and work are
changing at the speed of light. Working from home, Zoom calls around the clock, an
insurmountable number of open tabs, a shelf that needs dusting off, an empty fridge etc. Is this
what it is like to be an employee these days?

Employee Experience is not something that pops up in an easily applicable shortlist about how
to boost your personal skills. You won’t encounter it in some grand master’s theory either. It is
something that only becomes clear if your vision and values see that human moments and
connections matter.

At Kokoro, Employee Experience matters. We know it can neither be driven nor controlled. It
happens bottom-up and is always personal. Employee Experience is directly connected to Team
Performance, Employee Engagement, Retention and how each employee experiences
Work-Life Balance in their workplace. And it is much more. Employee Experience is the
outcome of the culture we have created and what every employee and team encounters over
the course of their tenure at an organisation.

The best way to understand Employee Experience is through your teams. It is constantly being
shaped by each team member’s behaviour, whether they are small actions or grand gestures,
the team transforms and grows with each moment and/or experience.

Imagine if we could set the stage, so every team can tap into their intrinsic motivation, their urge
to collaborate and do their best work.

At Kokoro, we focus on supporting team leaders to create the conditions for high-functioning
teams. Our approach is strength-based team development. We surface formative data – data
that helps the teams to shape their future – and make it available to all the team members on the
go. It is up-to-date, actionable, and easy to understand. But most importantly, it leads to learning
conversations that encourage accountability and not blaming behaviour.

After doing research with 100s of teams, we found the magic sauce of Team Experience. Here

are the three measuring points to build and develop great teams:

  1. Belonging: We all know the feeling when we fit in and when we don’t. When we feel that
    we belong, we stop worrying and commit to action. Belonging provides clarity, orientation
    and supports resilience. It’s leadership’s responsibility to create structures of belonging
    that focus on cultural add over cultural fit.
  2. Psychological Safety: It is when there is a sense of confidence that no one will shame,
    reject, punish anyone for speaking up, making a mistake or taking a calculated risk.
    Psychological Safety is all about how we learn to hold our space and listen to each
    other. Ultimately, it creates organisational agility and accelerates the speed of learning.
  3. Flow: A state of flow equals productivity and focus. It is contagious in any environment
    and helps teams stay focused and function at their best. When teams are in the zone, it
    affects their perception of time and how they deal with problems and challenges.

So how do the 3 above play out in your team? To work on these three dimensions is an ongoing
process. As with all learning, it will never end. But if done with commitment, it will help your team
feel and stay connected, hinder burnout or bore out, give guidance, and ultimately lead to a
healthy high functioning team.

 

About the Authors

As one of the co-founders of Kokoro, Andrej focuses on team development, new work and diversity. Born in Sweden and raised in an immigrant family, „remote“ and navigating different systems has always been an issue. And as a member of several hybrid teams in online marketing, Andrej experienced the benefits and challenges with remote work early on. For the past 20 years, he has called Vienna as is home town.

 

 

Imran Rehman is not only an organisation and employee-experience specialist with expertise in measuring for and developing high-performance. Based in Vienna, Imran is a leadership coach and CEO of Kokoro. This web-based tool helps create the conditions for successful teams through strengthening psychological safety, belonging and flow experiences in real-time with a data-informed approach.