Employee Engagement: Turn Work Into Art

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