❤️ I'm a resource hoarder. Here's the best of the best.

Hello and Happy Thursday!

Get your bookmarks ready, pals. Today is all about getting you the best tools for some fundamental employee experience challenges.

After reviewing the survey results from last week's newsletter, I knew I wanted to share some of my favorite stockpiled links and tools. My "I'm going to need this information someday" tendencies might as well be put to good use!

Hopefully you'll find just the thing you need at this exact point in time.

Miss out on the survey? All good - it’s still open, and I’d be so grateful for your input! It just takes a minute to answer 3 questions that will help me tailor WTWT content to exactly what you need in 2024.

Your digital librarian,

Jill

The right tools for the job

I asked WTWT readers to share their top 2024 priorities and a few major theme's definitely jumped out. You can expect future deep-dives on each of these, but today we're focusing on some top resources you can use right away!

Let’s jump in.

"I'm working on OKRs."

OKR stands for “Objectives and Key Results,” a framework linking clear, measurable goals (objectives) to the outcomes (key results) that define their achievement. Done right, OKRs provide focus, drive collaboration, support clear decision-making, and motivate the heck out of teams. Flubbing them risks confusion, frustration, and damaged engagement or motivation. I am all about helping you succeed, so here are some of my tip top resources for aligning, launching, and evaluating OKRs.

Tability’s guide to getting started with OKRs gives a great walk-through on implementing OKRs with your team. Every team will bring its own flavor, but if you’re truly starting from scratch, this is a good jump-off resource.

This Ultimate Guide to OKRs summary from Christina Wodtke's interview on the Lenny Podcast. It goes deep into the mistakes organizations often make and how to get in front of them. Bonus: you can also listen to the episode, if that's more your cup of tea.

True North’s Minimum Viable Vision Guide is the tool for establishing your overarching vision, a crucial step to establishing and aligning on impactful goals. As you'll learn in the above summary, having clarity on the overall vision is critical to OKRs succeeding. 

Clickup’s index of 11 (free and paid) software tools for tracking your OKRs gives you a thorough review of myriad tools for your success. Pros, cons, pricing information, G2 and user reviews, key features - it’s all there!

“I want to improve our internal and employee communication.”

Great comms are so much more than dropping the perfect .gif at the right time. Properly engaging, informing, and connecting teammates can boost trust, increase productivity, catalyze collaboration, and showcase your culture. Whether you’re a team of one managing comms “unofficially,” or have an entire team of communications specialists, getting this right will level up your Employee Experience game. Here are some of my favs for nailing this one:

Blink’s guide to writing an internal comms strategy lays out how to nail your communications. From analyzing your current state, to managing the day-in-day-out, from top-level to tactical, it leaves no stone unturned!

Our own ideal workplace culture exercise is your first step if you’re not yet clear on the cultural ideals, values, and expectations your company claims (or aspires to achieve). Your comms strategy must support your culture; so defining this at the outset is critical.

Erica Dhawan’s Digital Body Language tackles communication in a digitally connected age. Whether you’re a comms professional or manager looking to connect more effectively with your remote team, this has something for you.

“I’ve got to level up our people leaders and managers.”

You already know I love a strong manager support system, and it’s not hard to see why. While “people don’t leave jobs, they leave managers” is a bit of a reductive adage, it is true that one’s manager has an outsized impact on their workplace and overall experience. One 2023 study suggests that our managers may have a bigger impact on our mental health than our therapists. With stakes this high, you need support tools; here are some of my favs:

The Manager Expectations Matrix is an excellent place to start if you’re unsure of how to define manager success in your organization (and align folks to it!) Without defined expectations across the company, employee experiences can vary greatly based on who they report to.

The 25 Micro-Habits of High-Impact Managers is a must-read from First Round Review. Progress is best achieved through small steps and this list is a perfect place to identify areas of growth.

Distribute our Creating a Team Charter resource, which walks people managers through every aspect of establishing one with their team. Being intentional about norms and expectations is especially important for remote and hybrid teams and this tool will help them do just that.