A colleague recently told me about a large drawing of an ear hanging on the wall in her daughter’s preschool room. The teacher directs the kids to “talk to the ear” if they have a gripe about Jacob not sharing his toy or some other preschool drama. The teacher makes it clear that unless they are hurt or bleeding, the ear is their first stop.

At first glance, this seems like dereliction of duty — a pre-K version of the dismissive “talk to the hand.” But according to the teacher, more often than not, the child wanders off happily after unloading on “the ear.”

Apparently, a five-year-old suffers a multitude of injustices throughout the day and many of them are easily resolved by simply walking up to the ear on the wall and pleading his or her case. Otherwise, the teacher is inundated with the incessant protestations of her cherubic charges who feel compelled to “tell” on offending classmates.

I wondered if this was an isolated practice, so I Googled it and found examples of this approach at preschools across the country.

So why does it work? Is it just that preschoolers are gullible enough to fall for the old “talk to the ear” trick?

Apparently there’s more going on here than meets the eye. By sharing their grievances, even with an inanimate ear, children seem to talk themselves through potential plans and actions, as described in Speaking and Listening for Preschool Through Third Grade, a book on oral language development:

Research shows that during free-play settings, about 40 percent of children’s talk is not directed to socializing with other children but to guiding their own behavior or thinking. This “talking to one’s self,” or thinking out loud, helps to guide cognitive processes…

Let’s just hope the plan of attack concocted doesn’t involve going back and biting Jacob.

This made me think of the methods corporations put in place to solicit feedback from employees. Unless companies are sincere and diligent about how they ask for and act on input, they’re simply creating elaborate processes to tell the workforce to “talk to the ear.”

And employees are not as easily appeased as five-year-olds.

In a society used to providing immediate feedback by “liking” things on Facebook or ranting about risotto that was too loose on chowhound.com, the days of putting suggestion boxes next to the water cooler are over. Two effective methods of engaging the workforce are employee surveys and face-to-face communication with executives.

Employee surveys

An annual employee opinion survey is a powerful tool that can provide trend data from year to year. But there are a few principles that must be applied to ensure success:

Anonymity is essential. Employees are naturally skeptical and without assurances feedback is anonymous, their responses may be tempered — or they may simply refuse to participate. While maintaining anonymity, it’s also important to structure the survey in a way that breaks down results by major department to see where pockets of dissatisfaction exist.

Use closed and open-ended questions. Providing an opportunity for employees to write in responses may appear to be an invitation for disgruntled employees to harp on their particular pet peeves, but mining this data can reveal significant nuggets for improvement.

Share the results. There must be a commitment to demonstrate employee feedback has been heard and acted upon. Companies must clearly communicate when changes are the result of feedback. Otherwise, employees simply won’t connect the dots. When communicating changes based on employee feedback, some companies create a graphic icon to accompany announcements about upcoming changes. Harking back to the earlier preschool example, sometimes that icon is an ear.

Face-to-Face Forums
Another method of engaging employees is providing opportunities for direct interaction with company executives. While time intensive and potentially daunting for leaders, these forums are highly valued by employees since it provides a direct line of communication to decision makers. Again, a few simple guidelines can make the most of these sessions:

Spend as much time listening as talking. While it’s important for a leader to use this setting to deliver key messages, it’s equally important to hear from the workforce. This includes building in ample time for employee comments and questions. Recognizing some employees may be reluctant to speak up, augment the question-and-answer period with questions submitted in advance.

Don’t be afraid to say you don’t know. It’s not possible to know the specifics of every issue an employee might raise. If leaders don’t know the answer to a question, they should be willing to say, “I don’t know. I’ll find out and get back to you.” And then do it.

Manage expectations. Inevitably, some employee feedback will not be acted upon. Is a company really going to build air conditioned pavilions for smokers? Not likely. And it’s important to address those kinds of issues head on.

Companies have repeated the mantra that “employees are our most important asset” so often it has become a cliché. Sincere efforts to solicit feedback from the workforce can make those words ring true again. And the improvements to a company’s bottom line will follow.

An Argentinian proverb says it best: He who speaks, sows; he who listens, reaps.