Insights from Festival for the Future: Creating Thriving Workplaces

Recently our team had the incredible opportunity to participate in the Festival for the Future Ideas in Wellington. This vibrant event brought together over 1400 people - most of them young professionals - from across New Zealand, offering us a unique chance to engage with the next generation of talent. 

At BloomHQ our mission is all about helping businesses create awesome workplaces and thriving teams. We're all about people. So, when we had the chance to connect with the festival crowd, we wanted to dive deep and understand what makes them tick in the workplace. So we came up with two simple yet powerful questions:

Question 1: "How do you want to feel at work?"

Question 2: "How often does someone ask you how you feel at work?"

It was interesting seeing the initial reaction in people’s faces when they read our questions walking past our stall. Some smiled, some looked surprised, and a few paused to reflect. Many were curious why we asked these questions. Over the course of two days, we engaged in countless conversations that affirmed our belief in the power of simple questions as a conversation opener.

To gather data and delve deeper into people’s thoughts, we asked them to participate in a poll. Using "The Wellbeing Deck," – designed by our co-founder Tamara – which we typically use in our "Wellbeing Workshops," we gave them 31 feeling-words to choose the one that’s most important to them – not an easy task. The results of 109 people taking part in our poll were not surprising in terms of their desired feelings — they want to feel inspired (14), empowered (13), fulfilled (6), motivated (5), appreciated (5), or balanced (5). However, it was their personal stories that resonated with us. These stories revealed their desire for meaningful engagement in their work. These mostly young people want work environments where they can shine, show off their skills, and be their authentic selves.

Figure 1 Results – How do you want to feel at work? 

When we asked our second question, "How often does someone ask you how you feel at work?" we heard some pretty inspiring stories about people who seem to have amazing managers. However, we also learned that a significant number of people don't get asked this question often or only occasionally. And here's the interesting part: even among those who chose "often," many admitted that the question didn't feel genuine, and some didn't feel safe enough to answer truthfully. Everyone we spoke to agreed they want to be asked this question, but sincerely.

So, how do we create workplaces where people feel empowered, safe, and supported so they can thrive? It all starts with time, listening, and trust. We need to allocate time to ask these questions, and we need to take time to listen to the responses, to understand what’s going on for the person in front of us. Without genuine listening, asking questions becomes pointless. And we need to build trust to allow these conversations. When people trust that their thoughts and feelings will be respected and valued, they are more likely to open up. When we take time to listen to people’s needs, we not only understand what’s going on for them but we make them feel heard. 

In those two days, we had so many great conversations and lots of great feedback: People appreciated our questions and the chance to reflect on them. Experiencing the impact of these two simple questions on people was a big boost for our motivation. Our Festival of Future Ideas experience showed us the power of genuine questions, listening, and meaningful connections. We feel inspired to keep creating thriving workplaces where people feel valued and can be themselves.

Here are some of the questions we asked in these conversations – can you make some time to reflect on these yourself?

• When someone asks you how you feel at work? How does it make you feel?

• Have you ever thought about the impact of asking your team members how they feel at work?

• How might genuine listening contribute to building trust in the workplace?

• In what ways can workplaces empower individuals to shine and be their authentic selves?

• What steps can you take to ensure that your colleagues feel safe and supported in expressing their thoughts and feelings at work?

• How might allocating time for meaningful conversations and active listening improve workplace dynamics?

• Reflect on your own experiences, how did feeling valued and heard impact your engagement and motivation at work?