What Happened
Singapore's CPF Board made a deliberate shift in how it shapes its workplace culture. Instead of handing employees a finished product, HR Director Dorcas Fong and her team brought staff into the design process itself. The result was higher engagement and genuine employee ownership of the changes. This was not a feel-good initiative. It was a structural communication decision with measurable impact.
The Communication Angle
Here is the lesson: the language you use to frame involvement determines the level of commitment you get back.
Most organizations announce. They design a program, polish it up, then present it to employees with enthusiasm and a slide deck. The implicit message is: "We thought about you." That sounds generous. It is not. It is still top-down, and people feel it. They show up, they nod, and then they go back to their desks and change nothing.
CPF Board did something harder. They said, in effect, "We have not figured this out yet. Help us." That framing is everything. It signals respect, yes, but more importantly it creates a contract. When someone contributes to building something, they are no longer a passenger. They are a co-owner. And co-owners do not let their own work fail.
The specific communication technique at play here is what I call "open frame" language. Instead of presenting conclusions, you present problems. Instead of asking people to react, you ask them to solve. The difference in a meeting sounds like this: not "Here is our new values framework, any questions?" but "We are trying to define what great looks like here. What would you add?" One closes the conversation. The other opens it. The responses you get are incomparable in quality and honesty.
Dorcas Fong's framing in this story is precise and worth studying. "Building with, not for" is a clean, memorable contrast that communicates the philosophy in five words. That kind of crisp language does not happen by accident. It reflects clear internal thinking. When your idea is muddy, your words are muddy. When it is sharp, the words follow. CPF Board's HR team understood what they were actually doing, and that clarity showed up in how they talked about it publicly.
This is exactly the kind of scenario I break down in Say It Right Every Time. The chapter on framing covers how the words you choose before a conversation shapes every response that follows. Most people think framing is about spin. It is not. It is about being precise enough that people can actually engage with what you are saying. CPF Board did not just include their employees, they framed the inclusion in a way that made participation feel meaningful and real. That distinction is the whole game.
Never Be Lost
for Words Again
Get word‑for‑word scripts for the conversations that shape your life, from job interviews and negotiations to difficult talks with family and partners, so you always know exactly what to say and how to say it.
Never Be Lost
for Words Again
Get word‑for‑word scripts for the conversations that shape your life, from job interviews and negotiations to difficult talks with family and partners, so you always know exactly what to say and how to say it.
Key Takeaway
Before your next team initiative, do not draft a solution first. Draft a problem statement instead. Write one sentence that names what is broken or missing, and take that sentence into the room. Ask your team to help you solve it. You will get better ideas, and the people who contribute will actually implement what gets decided. The sentence you write is not a weakness. It is an invitation.
