If you’re looking for a laugh, turn to the social studies.

They quickly realized that they had a real problem measuring things that go on inside minds.

Take happiness, for example. Early social scientists asked people to self-report. Something like on a scale of 1 to 10, how happy would you say your life is overall?

Some would say five, others seven.

And none of those numbers meant anything.

My favorite proof of this was when this question was asked near a pay phone. (Why not, this study was not recent, how did you know?)

For the test group, they placed a small amount of change on the coin return. I’m talking about 20c or something. For the control group, nothing.

It turns out that finding an irrelevantly small amount of money is enough to raise your reported happiness score, on average, by a whole point.

The test group averaged something like 7.5 out of ten, compared to 6.5 for the control.

So there’s the solution to unhappiness, right? Hide coins in unexpected places.

Try it with your people and you will see!

Well… maybe not…

People, as we now know, are terrible at self-reporting. We pick a number that feels good and go with it.

That means asking your employees how much they trust your organization… well, you might as well ask them to pick a random number.

But that’s not to say you can’t measure trust and engagement.

You just have to be cunning.

You have to catch it as a hunter.

That is how:

You start with a survey. Yeah I know, I just spend hundreds of words making fun of the self report. Roll with it for a second.

A standard Likert-style quiz is fine, you know, the ones with a series of statements that ask you whether you strongly disagree or agree with each one.

In it, list specific statements that reflect some aspect of trust. For example:

“I often feel energized at work.”

“My boss often micromanages me.”

“I am proud to work for this organization.”

Collect these responses before the change initiative begins.

Because?

Because while the answers may tell you little, comparing them tells you a lot.

If you laughed at the 20c story above, here’s what I mean. A lonely happiness rating said nothing about human nature. But comparing two happiness indices says a lot.

Maybe the first round of the survey tells you something, like if your employees are excited but burned out.

Maybe it’s just a lot of noise.

Either way, when you repeat the survey in six or 12 months, it gives you something to compare it to.

I trust that the swing will be in your favor.