How simple can you make employee engagement?

I wrote about John Maeda’s ideas on simplicity 2 years ago. The  ideas are still very applicable and thanks to Patti Digh I have now added an engaging 4 minute video on the 10 laws. I encourage you to watch the video, read the points, and determine how you can take action to simplify engagement.

John Maeda. a professor in MIT’s Meida Lab, is the master of simplicity. He wrote a compelling book, The Laws of Simplicity.

In this article I apply Maeda’s 10 laws and 3 keys of simplicity to employee engagement.

TEN LAWS

1. REDUCE. The simplest way to achieve simplicity is through thoughtful reduction. What can you reduce from work and the organization that can enhance employee engagement. Perhaps you can remove constricting policies or physical barriers between people.

2. ORGANIZE. Organization makes a system of many appear fewer. There are many variable influencing employee engagement. Strive to organize them into effective categories. For example I like to organize employee engagement interventions into 3 dimensions: organizational, leadership, and employee.

3. TIME. Savings in time feels like simplicity. Where can time be saved to make work simpler and yet more productive and powerful?

4. LEARN. Learn all you can about employee engagement. Learn what engages you. Learn what experts offer. Mostly in a leadership position, learn from the people closest to engagement - yourself and the employees!

5. DIFFERENCES. Simplicity and complexity need each other. Engagement must be interspersed with periods of disengagement.

6. CONTEXT. What lies in the periphery of simplicity is definitely not peripheral. If you want to enhance engagement look to change the context of work or the working environment and watch behavior change because of this “peripheral” change.

7. EMOTION. More emotions are better than less. Emotion is the motion of engagement. Create emotions of caring and satisfaction and belonging. Let employees know they matter.

8. TRUST. In simplicity we trust. Employee engagement must be based on trust and belief. Effective employee engagement is based of mutual purpose and benefit for all.

9. FAILURE. Some things can never be made simple. As you strive to simplify employee engagement keep your eyes open for failure and what can be learned from this.

10. THE ONE. Simplicity is about subtracting the obvious, and adding the meaningful. What obvious drudgery can be removed from work so that the most meaningful of efforts can be added to the employee’s effort and experience.

THREE KEYS

1. AWAY. More appears like less by simply moving it far, far away. Can you keep the less urgent and unimportant disengaging work far away?

2. OPEN. Openness simplifies complexity. Make your organization open to employees. Open book management has been a powerful way to gain engagement from many employees as they become a real business partner in an organization. Can you use the tools of Web 2.0 to create an open environment — open to communication from all levels and equally open to change because of this communication?

3. POWER. Use less, gain more. Empowerment can be a pathway to engagement and reduction of hierarchical power can create more power within employees to power up their own engagement.

I encourage you to read Maeda’s book and focus on how you can design simple employee engagement at your work.

The  Zinger Employee Engagement Model: Version 1.3 – Engagement for Results

Here is an overview of the  Zinger Employee Engagement Model.  The purpose of the model is to foster both understanding and actions to achieve robust results and authentic employee engagement for all.

Included with this model are:

1. A definition of employee engagement.
2. An image of the model.
3. 14 symbols and brief descriptions of each component of the model.

Employee Engagement Definition

Employee engagement is the art and science of engaging people

in authentic and recognized connections to strategy, roles, performance,

organization, community, relationship, customers, development, energy, and happiness

to leverage, sustain, and transform work into results.

The model

The 14 components and symbols for each component

Achieve results. Employee Engagement is directed towards achieving results.  The first key of the model is on the far right hand side and begins with the results the organization, department, team, or individual wants to achieve. The key question for this part of the model is: What do you want achieve and how will you know when you achieve it?

Craft strategy. From the far right hand side of the model we move back through the model to the far left hand side of the model. To achieve results we need to craft a strategy to get there. How will we get those results and does everyone know the organization’s intentions and plans?  Is our strategy engaging and will we have high enough employee engagement to fulfill the strategy?

Connect. A central key of employee engagement is connection. In some ways connection is synonymous with engagement. How well are employees connected to the other elements of engagement ranging from their organization to genuine happiness? Connect starts the central keys of CARE embedded in the employee engagement model.

Authentic. Authenticity is the the A of CARE. Employee engagement must be authentic. Employees and customers can spot phony from a mile away or even in a moment of time. We must transcend superficial relationships, community or happiness towards engagement that is heartfelt.  Powerful engagement is real and robust.

Recognition. The R in the core of CARE is recognition. Potent employee engagement requires powerful recognition. We are talking about a lot more than long service awards or pens. Are employees fully seen and acknowledged? Do employees see the importance of what they are doing and how their work connects to results?

Engage. CARE ends with the E of engage. We so often talk about “engagement” and substitute the verb of working (engage)  for a static noun (engagement). Engage focuses on the actions of engagement. Engagement is not a one time survey measure or a steady state. To engage is to fully experience and contribute to the dynamic elements of work.

Enliven work roles. We have various roles that we must fulfill to fully engage. A role is a set of behaviors, rights and obligations at work. We must guard against too many roles or role overload while also fully being in the roles that contribute to results, relationships, and engagement. Sometimes leaders and managers are almost impervious to their role as employee too.

Excel at performance. Engagement for results can contribute to effective performance management. Performance demonstrates our engagement while engagement can help us excel at performance. Good employee engagement should foster star performers. We want to help each employee become a star performer to benefit customers, the organization, and themselves.

Identify with organization.  How aligned is the employee with the organization? Is there a mesh between the organizational and individual brand? Do employees feel that they are a part of the organization or apart from the organization? Are they proud to work for their organization and equally proud to recommend their organization and be constant ambassadors for the organization.

Foster relationships and community. A strong key of employee engagement is our connection to relationships and community. These relationships and community can be personal and social media. Do we build relationships and results? The essence of work is relationships and community. Organizations that do not transform themselves into communities are in danger of becoming obsolete or ignored.

Serve customers. We want employees to serve the organization’s customers and there are very strong relationships between employee engagement and customer engagement. Does the employee feel served by the organization and management so much so that they in turn offer the same level of service to the external and internal customers.

Develop personally and professionally. Work should offer benefits back to  employees. Employees should experience both personal and professional development through work ranging from courses and learning to developing their own strengths, value, visibility, and engagement.  We spend so much time at work and work should help us become all we are capable of becoming.

Leverage energies. The raw material of engagement is energy. Do we have the energy to fully engage? Do we offer the organization an energy gain or do we deplete the energy of our peers? Powerful engagement involves mastery of physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, and organizational energy. Energy not time is the vital resource for engaged working.

Attain genuine happiness. Ultimately work should contribute to our genuine happiness. We are happy to work, we contribute happiness to others, and we look forward to work. Genuine happiness is developed through knowing and using our strengths in the service of others, gratitude,  and a host of other authentic contributors to happiness.

The model and symbols: This was a brief overview of the model and accompanying symbols. This website and David Zinger’s services will  contribute to enriching not just your understanding of the model for the organization and yourself but using the model to achieve results for  the benefit of all.

Contact David Zinger to put the model to work for more powerful, robust, and authentic employee engagement within your organization.

Engage in Employee Engagement

Engage. CARE ends with the E of engage. We so often talk about “engagement” and substitute the verb of working (engage)  for a static noun (engagement). Engage focuses on the actions of engagement. Engagement is not a one time survey measure or a steady state. To engage is to fully experience and contribute to the dynamic elements of work. See all the symbols and the full model by clicking here.

Read the following post by Eric Klein:

How to turn work into art

The paintings of Chuck Close, when viewed from a distance, verge on photographic realism. But, as you walk towards the painting, step-by-step the coherent image deconstructs into a network of surprising squares.

Each square is a mini-abstract painting filled with squiggles, globs, and dashes of color. The squares are beautiful and when viewed up-close appear to have no shared purpose.
It’s only when you step back far enough that the overall pattern, the relationship of the individual squares, is revealed.

Every square is a complete painting unto itself.
Yet, it also has a place in the larger canvas – as an element of the whole. A work of art reveals both the integrity of the part and the integrity of the whole. In a work of art, the part and whole enrich each other.

What would it mean to apply these two perspectives to your work?

1. The close-up perspective that focuses on the details and nuances of your individual work.
2. The big picture perspective that considers your work as one element among many in a broader purpose or plan

Both perspectives are important.

It’s important to be engaged and deeply focused on what you do.
You need to get up-close and personal in order to appreciate, hone, and enhance the details of your work. You need this intense focus to raise your performance to the level of mastery.

But, you get too close to your work, you can lose the sense of how what you do connects to a larger purpose. We’ve all met people who think that they’re piece of the puzzle is in fact the whole deal. They’re view is too narrow.

It’s equally important for you to step back and see your contribution in a broader context.
To recognize how what you do fits into a bigger picture and serves as simply one element in a larger purpose. This larger perspective can enrich daily tasks and mundane actions with a sense of meaning and purpose (See: What Can a Glass of Water Teach You About Leadership)

But, if you only take the broad view, it’s easy to lose an appreciation for the necessity and nobleness of small individual contributions. They can seem mundane or even disposable. The broad view, taken to extremes, ignores the significance of the little things. It’s all vision with no substance to back it up.

You need to take both perspectives on your work.
And help others do the same. Team members need to be passionately engaged with their individual work. To have an up-close and personal connection to the nuances and details of what they do work.

And at the same time, they need to embrace the broader vision of how what their contribution do fits into a bigger picture.

One perspective enriches the other. Together they make work into art.

Questions for Reflection & Action:

Take the up-close perspective:

• What’s a small aspect/detail of your work will you focus on today?
• How can you refine, polish, enhance that small aspect or detail?

Take the big picture perspective:

• What’s the larger purpose that your work supports?
• How does what you do contribute to the team, the organization, the larger community?

Make the connection:

• How does the small detail/aspect of your work fit into and enrich the bigger picture?
• How does the big picture support and enrich the detail?
  

I encourage you to answer Eric’s questions and to visit his wonderful site and blog by clicking here

Everyone Forever Now – “Stoop Sitting”

In reverse. Stoop sitting was responsible for having me live my working life in reverse. Even as a four year old boy growing up in Regina, Saskatchewan I loved to sit on the stoop.

A valuable stoop lesson. Thirty years ago I was stoop sitting in front of my apartment with Don, the crusty World War I veteran.  Don looked at me and said that retirement was wasted on the old and that a young guy like me (I was about 25 at the time) should retire. It sounded crazy on the surface but upon further reflection I took Don’s advice to heart.

Retire before working. Don was instrumental in inspiring me to live my live in reverse. I was retired from 20 to 35, I was in semi-retirement from 35 to 55 and now at 55 I am coming out of retirement. You just never know what you might learn by sitting on the stoop!

Stoop video. Are you taking the time to disengage and refresh and reconnect? I enjoyed and appreciated the video below by By Will Hoffman & Daniel Mercadante on Stoop Sitting.

Listen and look. Listen carefully to the words and watch the images as you think about how you might engage in stoop sitting.

…relaxing, enjoying the sunshine, I’m not busy I’m just relaxing, I just like to sit out here, taking it easy, it makes you feel like you have a place, it may seem like we are not doing anything…it is like solitude to me…being yourself…enjoying life.

You might not even need a stoop to sit on but can you capture these energizing experiences?

Watch the stoop. If the video does not appear in this window, click here.

Everyone Forever Now – “Stoop Sitting” from Daniel Mercadante on Vimeo.

What’s the Story?

Do you offer stories to enhance employee engagement? Here is a nice 3 minute video on the art of telling a story that just might improve the next employee engagement story you tell. It is a short presentation by Scott Simon from NPR on How to Tell A Story. If the video does not load in this window, click here.

I found this video and some great articles on story at Anecdote: Putting Stories to Work. This is a terrific site crafted by Shawn Callahan and Mark Schenk

Here is the Weekly Today at Work  Cartoon by John Junson:

Strategy and Accountability in Employee Engagement

Craft strategy. To achieve results we need to craft a strategy to get there. How will we get those results and does everyone know the organization’s intentions and plans?  Is our strategy engaging and will we have high enough employee engagement to fulfill the strategy? To view the complete Zinger Employee Engagement Model and symbols click here.

I am so pleased to reprint this article by Skip Reardon on Building Organization-Wide Accountability. Skip Reardon is a wonderful blogger who writes: Be Excellent® – The Official Six Disciplines® Blog: Revolutionizing Strategy Execution. Every Person. Every Day.

I encourage you to consider the vital role accountability plays in employee engagement and how we engage people in both strategy and accountability.

Building company-wide accountability is a key element to making a business sustainable over a long period of time. Not surprisingly, all high-performing organizations are moving toward more empowerment, enlightenment — and building their own organizational accountability.

So what is accountability? To some, it’s something you make people do, as in “making people accountable.” But as long as you think accountability can be purchased, mandated, or motivated, you’re trapped in trying to create accountability — where it may not be possible.

Let’s consider what accountability is, and how we can build an organizational culture that encourages it.

Be definition, accountability is being answerable or responsible for something. Accountability opens the door to ownership – not necessarily financial ownership — but certainly emotional ownership, where someone acknowledges they’re responsible for some aspect of the organization.

Accountability is not something you “make” people do. It has to be chosen, accepted or agreed upon by people within your organization. People must “buy into” being accountable and responsible. For many, this is a new, unfamiliar, and sometimes, uncomfortable way to work. Most importantly: individual purpose and meaning comes from accepting responsibility and learning to be accountable.

To learn to be accountable means coming to grips with an element of discipline. Accountability is the opposite of permissiveness. Holding people accountable is really about the distribution of power and choice. When people have more choice, they are more responsible. When they become more responsible, they can have more freedom. When they are more accountable, they understand their purpose and role within the organization and are committed to making things happen.

So, how do you build company-wide accountability?

Only organizations that can clearly identify, articulate, and execute their strategic goals are well-positioned to be able to build company-wide accountability. To effectively achieve these goals, companies must measure and manage actual business performance against these goals in a highly coordinated manner.

A six-step framework to build company-wide accountability is to:

1. Decide What’s Important (develop an authentic mission, vision, values, strategic position)
2. Set Goals That Lead (planning that includes measures, targets, projects)
3. Align Systems (streamline processes and resources so all resources support the goals)
4. Work the Plan (assure and measure so that each employee’s plans and activities support the goals)
5. Innovate Purposefully (get to root causes quicker, make quicker and more informed decisions)
6. Step Back (assess strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats, appraise performance results)

Building company-wide accountability requires not only a systematic method based on proven best-practices. It also requires technologies that make the framework practical to use and implement on a daily, weekly, monthly quarterly and annual basis. In addition, it takes an external coach or strategic advisor to hold you and your organization accountable and to help these cultural changes to “stick” – to make it last. In the end, it takes an organization that is ready and able to accept accountability, and to benefit from the ownership and the freedom that comes with organizational accountability.

Accountability and positive organizational change come through a new set of conversations. You can start having these conversations in your organization today.

If you want to read more powerful strategic perspecitve on work by Skip Reardon, click here.

View this terrific video on employee engagement from the UK

Thank Goodness It’s Monday is an informative and somewhat cheeky video on employee engagement by Fiona Narbrugh on UK Councils and employee engagement. It offers the real voices and faces of engagement, a plethora of engagement snippets, Kaizen approaches, and all matter of things related to employee engagement.

16 Minutes but does size matter? It is almost 16 minutes long but very well produced and directed and even asks the cheeky question: Does size matter? Watch the video to find out.

3 Matters of Engagement. Overall the video outlines that engagement matters and outlines the 3 main “matters” of engagement:

1. Leadership and Direction
2. Communication and Involvement
3. Wellbeing and Performance

If the video fails to open in this window, click here.

How can you make use of video to foster and enhance your employee engagement work?

What can we learn for employee engagement by watching 2000 people walk invisible dogs?

Click here is the video fails to load in this window.

Authenticity in 16 Words? by CV Harquail

So that’s sixteen words. If we give ourselves some leeway, and allow maybe 5 more words, is there anything we should add?At soccer practice this week, I came up with a great idea for my 3rd/4th grade girls team. As coach, I have great ambitions for my team this Spring — I want them to do more than chase the ball all around the pitch whilst squealing.  So, I need to teach them to think just a little bit about strategy , and about what they need to do together .

I hit upon the idea of distilling soccer strategy down into a few pithy sayings. I’m calling it “Soccer in 16 words.”

Despite what I know about the dangers of reducing complex ideas into short sentences (e.g., mission statements, corporate values statements), I thought that this would be a great way to get my players thinking about what they each should be doing with the ball once they get their foot on it.

Tomorrow’s game will be the true test…but the girls left practice feeling really excited that they now “know so much” about soccer strategy– all because I could get it down into 16 words that each player can remember . And execute. And shout to her teammates from the sidelines. And use to confirm that she played her own part well.

So this got me to thinking, can I distill down a strategy for moving towards Organizational Authenticity, in  16 words?

Here’s what I came up with:

Organizational Authenticity in 16 Words

Walk the Talk. Point towards purpose. Reflect on our future. Learn, to adjust. Care a lot.

Read CV Harquail. I encourage you to read CV Harquail’s informative and authentic blog at Authentic Organizations: Aligning Identity, Action and Purpose.

The Invitation. Write your 16 world strategy for organizational authenticity in the comments for this page that would both embrace and foster employee engagement. Here is my early attempt:

We connect through trust.

Results are a must.

And we honestly engage.

Through real robust relationships.