“𝘐 𝘥𝘰 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘸𝘪𝘴𝘩 𝘵𝘰 𝘤𝘢𝘴𝘵 𝘢𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘶𝘳𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘳𝘦𝘨𝘪𝘮𝘦”
“𝘣𝘶𝘵…[𝘣𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦] 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘯𝘰 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘨𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘵𝘰𝘶𝘤𝘩 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘧𝘧…𝘸𝘦 𝘴𝘦𝘦 𝘴𝘰 𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘭𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘶𝘭𝘵 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘱𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘴.”
This is a letter to Commander Alan Bradshaw – the man in charge of site administration at Bletchley Park: Britain’s central intelligence and code-breaking site during WWII.
Because of the nature of the work at Bletchley, secrecy was paramount.
Often, employees wouldn’t know what they were working on. They certainly wouldn’t discuss with another employee – even after they left*.
Even during this secrecy, the importance of employee engagement is recognised.
A “stiff upper lip” and being told to “soldier on for the cause” isn’t enough – even in wartime.
The Commander is urged to consider staff morale to add “the personal touch”.
A euphormism that sounds an awful lot like HappyBeesMakeTastyHoney, don’t you think?
* There’s a fabulous story of two 90-years olds touring the facility a few years ago. It was only during that tour that each found out that both husband and wife were stationed there, working on different things, at the same time.
In 70+ years of marriage, they’d never discussed it!
