The organisation had changed, people’s roles and work had been disrupted and things didn’t feel right. Sound familiar? And when the director of this leading civil engineering company looked at all the options to bring the departments together, possibly at a hotel-based conference, the costs were significant. And that’s when he thought about a digital solution - ProReal.

We knew that right at the heart of an engagement process is an employee who feels listened to, and who is cognitively and emotionally engaged in a shared vision. Our proposal was to help increase employee engagement by facilitating greater openness and trust on which engagement with a shared vision can be built.

We used the ProReal software to help team members describe their thoughts and feelings. Research has found ProReal increases disinhibition and improves empathy. We started with a small intervention to evaluate the potential and acceptability of using a digitally enabled online process:

• A facilitated session (1.5hrs) online with the Director using ProReal to help understand the dynamics of the situation from his perspective.
• 2 x 2hr online focus groups of 5 people based in various locations. These sessions allowed managers to voice how they saw the current situation and share with others their hopes and needs for the future.

On completion of this intervention we reviewed the outputs (benefits) of the sessions as well as the response (usability of the method) by those who participated - with positive results.