Caution, Are you looking at employee engagement as a problem to to solved.

Richard Oliver, one of my favorite bloggers at Purposive Drift wrote the following gem:

Creativity is often described as a problem-solving activity. The problem with problem-solving is that it focuses on what is rather than what could be. If we want to do things differently rather than better we have to learn to search for the capabilities in any situation. Instead of identifying problems we will have to open ourselves to potentials. Instead of a world of fixed unchanging categories we will have to learn to see the world as more fluid, more open to change, and, ultimately, more mysterious. The trick we have to learn is to balance our habits, our experience, with the fresh and the new. We have to find ways of making the familiar strange to us. We have to tune in to the mysteriousness of the everyday. It is here that play and playful activities assume their role. Play releases us from a hardening of the categories. Play is the tool that allows us to see the capabilities concealed in the familiar.

Here are 7 employee engagement provocations from the above statement:

1. Are you seeing employee engagement as a problem to be solved, snagged by focusing on what is rather than what could be?
2. Do you see the capabilities in employees and the organization?
3. What are the engagement potentials?
4. Can you see the fluidity of employee engagement or is a once a year survey measure that makes it appear fixed and something you need to fix?
5. What fresh and new approaches have you used to enhance employee engagement?
6. Can you see employee engagement in a new way?
7. Will you approach the essence of employee engagement, work, from a playful perspective.

Apply a playful approach to see the capabilities concealed in your familiar categories, constructs, concepts, ideas, rules, and understandings of employee engagement.

Photo Credit: Crayola Lincoln Logs by http://www.flickr.com/photos/laffy4k/404321726/

Wrecking recognition.

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Instilling disengagement. Perhaps you were given a hat and you hate wearing hats or you got a company pen that leaked all over your purse. Perhaps you were given a box of donuts and you were dieting. The wrong type of recognition does not foster employee engagement, it instills disengagement.

How long can you last? Years ago most recognition events seemed focused on how long you worked there. It seemed if you had been there 30 years the organization would finally recognize you.

Public recognition or humiliation. At one organization I worked with, they called in the work crews to publicly acknowledge them and it was painful. These guys would have preferred never to be singled out in front of their peers and asked to come up to receive a plague and a gift. If the workplace really saw these gentleman they would have done it quietly in the lunch room or run it out to them where they were driving heavy equipment. I believe some of the men experienced the recognition as humiliation or punishment not as reinforcement for good work. We must recognize the impact or our recognition.

Dying for recognition. One organization somehow failed to recognize that someone had died and the person who had died two weeks earlier was called up to receive their award.

What about you? What has been your experience? Click here to offer your best story about the worst recognition you have experienced and you might just be able to be recognized in the way you want to be recognized.

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Grateful Recognition. I gratefully acknowledge and recognize Globoforce as the first monthly sponsor of the growing Employee Engagement Network. Their backing will help the network flourish and offer additional resources to the almost 1000 members. Join us.

ENGAGE: What does this word mean to you? (140 characters or less).

I engaged briefly with Twitter this afternoon and asked the above question. It was a good way to get some quick perspective on a term that I use so often. Thanks to the group of 7 for responding so quickly.

1. mmasarech Enthused and in gear (implies not just commitment or working hard… but focusing on things that matter)

2. WordsthatMove Engaged – buy-in to the mission, culture and common good of the organisation as well as focus on individual responsibilities

3. Mariment Ahh yes, “court” as in falling in love, not “court” as in divorce.

4. snoopdougydoug purposeful, powerful, playful and profitable
5. Mariment Good old fashioned “courting” may help the economy to recover. Court the customer, and $$ will follow.

6. workhappynow “engage” to me means getting down into the trenches and enjoying every freak’n minute of the experience.

7. Mariment ENGAGE: court the customer as though he/she is The One! –

8. bradfair Engage… intentional and active involvement

My definition. ENGAGE, to me, means a powerful connection full of gumption, heart, mindfulness, external focus, and happiness.

Go ahead and let me know your definition of engage in under 140 characters by leaving a comment or posting a comment to me on Twitter at: www.twitter.com/davidzinger

Are you prepared for the new interpersonal technology?

…signaling within our social networks is seen as more powerful than logic or reason. And the sociometer has also given us a new, powerful way to understand and manage human groups, corporations and entire societies…we could well see the creation of a quantitative, predictive science of human organizations and human society. ~ Alex Pentland

The last two posts in this series have provided an overview and outline of resources to understand honest signals and the use of the sociometer at work.

1. Honest Signals and Employee Engagement: Part 1.
2. Honest Signals Part 2: Top Resources.

This post outlines 6 implications or applications of the sociometer in employee engagement and offers a brief conclusion to this element of research that will experience more wide spread application in organizations in the coming 10 years.

Richer data. The sociometer and honest signals will give us new data to work with in the workplace. We will be able to discern the rich nonverbal channel of communication and how signals may be more important than what we say in relationship to decisions, interactions, and engagement.

Meaningful measurement. Our ability to measure honest signals will give these nonverbal measures more meaning and we may begin to pay more attention to this often neglected element of communication at work.

Finding friends. The sociometer allows for the tracking of friendships and strong relationships. Gallup has demonstrated the importance of friendships at work to foster engagement and we may be able to help employees monitor, master, and increase their friendships through this data source.

Biological 360 Evaluation. I think a potential of the sociometer and honest signals could function as the biological equivalent of the 360 degree evaluation. A toxic boss or manager could see a rich source of data about their treatment of employees that may be given more weight than an anonymous 360 degree evaluation or the occasional comment.

Assess disengagement. There have been a couple of studies using the sociometer as an early warning system of depression. Perhaps it will be possible to use this device and data to give us early warnings of disengagement and alert us as individuals or organizations to intervene early. Sometimes, I believe, the disengaged employees is only dimly aware of their disengagement until it reaches a more intense level of apathy, anger, non involvement, and even hatred.

Big Brother Blues. Used wrongly this data and device could become a source of disengagement as employees are compelled to wear them or data is made public that feels punishing to the employee. We will have to ensure this device is used voluntarily, respectfully, and above all…honestly!

Conclusion. I believe we will see honest signals become more central to the workplace. Pentland and Heibeck concluded their article on Understanding ‘Honest Signals’ in Business in the Fall 2008 MIT Sloan Management Review by stating:

…signaling within our social networks is seen as more powerful than logic or reason. And the sociometer has also given us a new, powerful way to understand and manage human groups, corporations and entire societies…we could well see the creation of a quantitative, predictive science of human organizations and human society…these new tools have the potential to make George Orwell’s vision of an all-controlling society into a reality. What we do with this new power may torun out ot be either our salvation or our destruction (p. 75).

I trust we will find information, resources, connections, relationships, and a honestly-led salvation of our organizations.

Marta Strickland got it right.  View this well-designed and insightful slide presentation on social media. Notice that engagement is a big part of getting it right!

Get Results. Enjoy this short slide share presentation by Ron Charnock.

Curt Coffman does an excellent job making us think about our use of employee engagement surveys. Watch this engaging video on The Top 10 Signs Your Employee Survey Needs to Change.

Watch for some of these intriguing points in the 7:40 video.

• Your survey has more items than your accounting system
• Spray and pay research
• Focus on the hole not the drill
• Don’t let your survey vendor hold you hostage.
• Don’t get results in 3 weeks fire your vendor
• Your dog ate your action plan
• When you change the way you look at things the things you look at change.

If the video fails to load, click here.

Look Who’s Talking in 140 characters or less.

Are you having a hard time understanding Twitter? Here is a picture of some of the people who follow me. Of course, what is more important to me is that I am following them!

I hope you get the picture of how you can dip into a community of rich diversity, insight, inspiration, knowledge, engagement, and connection. I find it quite powerful to get a quick snapshot of some of the connections.

If you already use Twitter you can get your own picture at Twittermosaic.

Influence Through Storytelling by Joyce Hostyn.

Learn more about story to influence employee engagement.

This slide show has over 200 slides but they are so visually appealling and so meaningful that I encourage you to take your time and get the story. Joyce Hostyn, from Experience Design, did a delightful job of sliding into storytelling and influence. If  the slide show does not open click here.