Put up a whiteboard in your company’s office. Not a whiteboard for meetings, mind you. A whiteboard with a question. Then, drop a bunch of markers next to it and wait for answers. It doesn’t matter what you ask, but try to make it a question that requires more than a “yes” or “no” answer. It could be something fun, or maybe a wild idea that you want validated. Without a doubt, passersby will stop for a moment and start writing. Don’t get it? Here’s an example of a question to ask:

What do we need?

It’s a very straightforward question, but you might be surprised about the answers. You’ll get serious answers about things that slow people down and make it hard for them to do their job. You’ll get inspiring answers about features your products or services may benefit from in the future (maybe even things people might be too scared to suggest in real meetings). You’ll get funny answers about how someone wants “weapons-grade plutonium”. In all cases, you’ll get useful results and engage the people around you. You’ll probably get more than answers, though. The most fascinating phenomenon is that people will start having conversations. Bob will read another Alice’s answer, then comment on it with his own thoughts with a little arrow pointing to the original.

I’ve seen the happen at two companies at which I’ve worked. At one, I was a full-time employee, and at the other, I was a contractor. In both cases, the message board instantly caught on, without explanation. One day it appears, and people instantly get it. In one case, it wasn’t a whiteboard. Nothing was provided for writing an answer. It was just a big thing on the wall with a permanent question (I don’t remember what exactly, but basically, “what are you up to?”). By day two, a clever individual had figured it out, and his or her answer materialized on a post-it. A conversation thread on the board became a cascading line of yellow squares. A couple weeks in, pictures of team members doing fun stuff were taped up there, and it was a great success.

Many business focus engagement so strongly on customers, that a little extra effort to engage employees can be surprising and exciting. A whiteboard or something else that asks a simple question brings a light-hearted atmosphere to the office and it may give you some information about what’s happening behind the scenes that was otherwise hidden. As someone who has experienced this addition to an office environment twice in my career, I highly recommend it for every business.