Get in the Habit of Asking “What Do You Think?”
By Evan Hackel
Leaders often assume culture changes through big programs: new values statements, large training programs, or sweeping reorganizations. But many of the most durable culture shifts are built through small, repeated moments—simple practices that signal, day after day, “Your ideas matter here.”
Consider a few “snapshot” practices that show Ingagement at work. In one technology organization, leaders encouraged people at every level to ask each other a single question at least once a day: “What do you think?” It sounds almost too easy, but the habit does something powerful—it normalizes contribution. In the same spirit, some leaders made “open door” more than a slogan by literally removing office doors, reducing the physical signals of hierarchy and making access feel real.
Other organizations created informal forums where people could share ideas and stories at scale, such as internal “campfire” conversations that invited broad participation. Still others built connection by having employees serve together in the community—because side-by-side service breaks down silos and creates relationships that later improve collaboration at work.
One of the simplest Ingagement mechanisms is also one of the most personal: the leader’s calendar. In one company, the CEO held a monthly lunch with seven or eight employees at a local restaurant. It wasn’t reserved for executives; anyone could be invited, and people who weren’t invited could still show up. The point was not a staged Q&A. The point was open conversation where no topic was off-limits. Practical ideas surfaced, but the bigger value was psychological: people felt seen. They felt that leadership wanted to know what they knew.
Another powerful practice flips the usual meeting structure. At an annual retreat in one organization, employees were invited to a large room with nothing but chairs and flipcharts. Senior management did not attend. Anyone could write a topic on a flipchart and start a discussion—HR issues, customer frustrations, operational bottlenecks, ideas for improving service. As the conversations unfolded, people moved between topics, added solutions, and refined ideas. After the retreat, the best ideas were posted back at the office along with visible progress updates. The message was unmistakable: input would not disappear; it would become action.
These stories share a pattern: low-friction ways to invite contribution, paired with visible follow-through. Ingagement doesn’t require perfection; it requires consistency. If you want to start building a more Ingaged culture, choose one small practice you can sustain—daily “What do you think?”, monthly lunches, or open forums where ideas are captured and revisited—and then prove you mean it by closing the loop. Culture changes when people stop wondering whether it’s safe and useful to speak up, and start experiencing that it is.
