The SEED method of internal engagement

Here is a very simple method and metaphor for internal engagement, when you need to engage people around a core focus, initiative, or change.

It works within teams, between multiple teams / divisions, and also across the entire organisation.

1. Boil down the massive change into a simple SEED of a message

Your message isn't the whole change, but it’s the essence of the change, the guiding principles.

Just like a seed! Seeds contain within them essence of the whole tree, that when you put it in different environments, uses the environment as a resource to adapt and grow into a tree.

The seed determines the type of tree. For instance, “We want AI to be an administrator for our team that keeps us all organised”.

2. Have a rhythm to water the seed

Rome isn’t built in a day, a tree doesn’t grow in a day, and we don’t reach our project destination in a day. So, we need to have a DAILY or WEEKLY check in, where we water the seed.

Most teams that I work with can get Step 1 right, but fail at Step 2. They declare their message, plant their seed, and then never water it.

You need to have weekly iterations – especially with AI. The new AI world is one of iterating our systems, not building them and then using them.

3. Shape the sapling

As the seed germinates, it begins to grow and take shape. You’ll have a sapling. You need to shape it.

This is because you need more than a seed now. Your message needs some sub directives. So, you add them as you go.

So what was your message now has sub-points, i.e.,

"We want AI to be an administrator for our team that keeps us all organised”

4. PRUNE!

And then as the seed-sapling-tree grows, we prune. We find what isn’t needed, we cut, adjust. We do husbandry.

But just because it’s a tree, doesn’t mean we forget: we still keep to the essence of the tree (the seed), and we still water the tree.