Yesterday evening spent with colleagues and guests at the Sunday Times Top 100 Companies to Work for Awards Dinner, in the somewhat strange setting of the tent in a park that is Battersea Evolution. CIPD have sponsored the event for some time, as it really fits with our core purpose around organisations and sustainable performance.
Ed Davey, Minister for Employment Relations, was one of our guests and was genuinely very interested in the companies and their practices that were really making a difference. He was particularly struck by what the smaller and medium size organisations were doing, and the example they could offer to others. Although I’m not sure how many people there heard that, as there was a constant murmur of talking right through his brief speech.
A crescendo of ‘non-listening'
But I don’t think that it was just that it was a politician, or even a coalition one, as a crescendo of ‘non-listening’ went on right the way through all of the awards presentations too. And looking back, it’s not just this event – it’s nearly every other award dinner I’ve been to over the last year or so. Presenters battling to be heard! Is it that the awards are a side show to a good night out, and are somewhat irrelevant unless you win? Or are some of them now so big or formulaic that people don’t feel engaged or that they’re really a part of it?
A reflection of what happens in so many organisations too, and not just for dinner.
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