37signals recently held a Comedy Central-style celebrity roast of its top-selling product in an attempt to find out what employees really thought were its weaknesses and ways it could be improved.
How was this different than the usual product meeting? For one thing, everyone was there. Designers, programmers, customer service folks—everyone had an opportunity to rip on something without worrying about hurt feelings. People understood the spirit of the roast and felt free to take a jab.
The next day, they started fixing some of the stuff that was brought up in the roast. And over the next few weeks, they began working on solving some deeper problems that emerged through the laughs. The roast even spawned some new ideas that will be making their way to our customers in 2012.
The roast hit all the right notes: It brought the employees together, generated some laughs, broke the ice on the first day of a long week together, highlighted a bunch of issues, and motivated everyone to dig in.
Source: “Want to Know What Your Employees Really Think?”
Original Publication: Inc. Magazine
Subject: Management
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