Filter-Free Fridays™ Implementation Idea

Filter-Free Fridays™ can be a powerful tool in the workplace. Encouraging your people to have open, honest dialogue in a non-hurtful way can realize improved results in the workplace. It is safe to say that when employees are forced to bite their tongues and swallow their feelings, they harbor resentment, for their co-workers, managers and the job. This will create actively disengaged employees. But open, honest and direct dialogue can go a long way to improving the workplace morale and subsequently, engagement levels.

So, if you are considering implementing the Filter-Free Fridays™ concept in your workplace, let me offer you a simple exercise that a departmental staff (of 50 or less) could start with.

On Friday (it is called Filter-Free Fridays™ after all) at noon, the department buys lunch and has it brought in to the office (pizza, sandwiches, wraps, sub-sandwiches, etc): something people can eat without the need for dishes - there's less clean-up. Once everyone has had their lunch and before the smokers head out for a butt-break, start the 5-minute exercise.

The Approachability Scale

Time needed: 5 minutes
Materials for each participant: one piece of notepaper and a pen or pencil
Difficulty: easy and meant to be light-hearted

Ask each person in attendance (managers included) to rate themselves on a scale of 1-4 (there is no middle number on this scale) on their level of approachability. It is important that each attendee assess themselves truthfully in how easy they believe it is for others to approach them (engage in conversation, ask a question, etc). The rating scale is as follows: 1 is being difficult to approach and 4 being easy to approach. Please make sure this is explained. Ask each person to write their number on the piece of paper but tell no one else their number.

The second part of the exercise is to now turn to the others and ask at least five others (can be more than 5 but not less) to offer a rating. So, Participant A would ask 5 others to rate them on a scale of 1-4 on how easy or difficult they would find it to approach them. Then Participant A would write down every rating offered. Then, Participant A would offer a rating to each of the others they spoke with in return.

This part of the exercise should take no more than 3 minutes to complete. There shall be no explanations as to why one participant assesses a number to another participant. Just get the number, give a number back, both write down their scores and then move on to the next person.

Once the 3 minutes is up, call everyone back and have them average their 5 answers. Then ask them to compare it to the number they gave themselves and offer the following:

• You have just experienced what it is like to be told the perceptual truth on this Filter-Free Friday™. It is the truth as others see it - which can be a far cry from the truth you see.
• In the last few minutes, people have rated you based on how THEY feel about approaching you. Remember, these numbers are people's perceptions of you.
• If the average you received from others is lower than the rating you gave yourself, you can ask yourself what you might need to change to become more approachable.
• If the ratings from others was higher than you gave yourself, then you may have to study why others rate you more approachable than you rate yourself.
• If your self-rating and the ratings of others was about the same, then congratulations, your perceptions are in line with others. You're telling yourself the truth.
• And that is the purpose of Filter-Free Fridays™ - to tell the truth in a non-hurtful way. Each of you has offered your co-workers a glimpse of the truth in a non-hurtful and fun way.
• So for the rest of the day, remember what day it is: Filter-Free Friday™. I encourage each of you to stretch yourself a little bit today and to offer your truth in a non-hurtful way.

Then dismiss them for the rest of the lunch hour.

This exercise is not meant to be feedback on work performance. This is a simple social exercise meant to foster a little trust, camaraderie and most of all, honesty in communication. Good luck with it.