Engagement Technique: Weekly Quote
You’ve got full blown engagement techniques that can be held over weeks, you’ve got big events that take a lot of organisation (but get a huge pay off).
Then there’s the weekly quote.
Inspiration, lead by your team. By putting something on a white board in an office (or a quote group in Teams/Slack)
Low level engagement technique, but.. low input, low management, and something that’s just, well, nice!
How/Why it works?
Pick a visible place in the office, intranet, or Monday team huddle where one employee each week shares a quote that means something to them. Ideally, not generic “live laugh love” material.
Something that genuinely motivates them, challenges their thinking, or helped them at a certain point in life or work. You could, if you wanted to make this even easier, ask employees to suggest a quote that means something to them in a company wide form – even if a proportion of the business complete it, you might even have a years worth of quotes!
Keep it simple: The quote. Who said it. The employee’s name. If they want to explain why it resonates, great. But don’t force it.
This is about getting positivity up on the wall, and helping people show themselves in small moments of personality and insight into each other. A good quote can often start conversations too! Like, ‘where’s that one from?’ ‘what made you pick that?’, or ‘I love that one!’!
It also gives quieter employees a very low-pressure way to contribute something to the culture.
Don’t Overthink it!
This is not a major engagement strategy. It’s a tiny culture boost that takes very little effort to maintain. No scoring. No deep analysis. No workshop needed.
Just a simple, consistent way to bring a little personality and reflection into the workplace. Just like the Inspiration Session, or the Happiness Score!
Some people aren’t a fan of motivational quotes, and that’s ok. You don’t engage all people with all approaches, but small differences make an impact, and start to build better environments over time.
If you want, maybe celebrate testimonials from clients, or something an employee wants to thank their colleague for, like in the ‘Kudos’ technique.
Takeaway
The Weekly Quote is proof that engagement doesn’t always need big budgets or complex initiatives.
Sometimes a thoughtful sentence on a whiteboard can create more connection than another corporate presentation ever will.
This post is part of our Engagement Techniques series of practical, low-cost ideas to bring more connection and meaning into work. Find the rest here
👉 Want to explore techniques like this in more depth? I run interactive employee engagement workshops where we bring these ideas to life.