Are you able to pause or come to a complete stop?
Employee engagement never stops. People work everyday and the work on employee engagement never ceases.
We are flooded with:
- Surveys,
- Tweets,
- Facebook entries,
- Google+ entries,
- LinkedIn updates,
- Employee Engagement Network contributions,
- Forums,
- Groups,
- Reports,
- White papers,
- Blog posts,
- News releases,
- Books,
- E-books,
- Videos,
- One thousand other streams of information.
And yes, I am well aware that I am a big contributor to this glut of information.
T. S. Eliot once wrote: Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?
Here are three questions I am pondering as I slow down (can’t seem to come to a complete stop) during the summer:
- How much more information do we need?
- What knowledge are we gathering from this information?
- Are we finding employee engagement wisdom?
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David Zinger is passionate about employee engagement and he is looking for the wisdom of engagement to offer others so that employee engagement is both wise and for the benefit of all.
How much more information do we need? On the Employee Engagement front, people managers need actionable information about their direct reports, so they can lead and manage well. People managers must get in step with the notion that the source of wealth is knowledge and while it’s “between the ears” of those that work for them, managers themselves are responsible for the application and performance of that knowledge and for the purposeful creation of new knowledge.
What knowledge are we gathering from this information? Employee Engagement happens on an individual basis, if, when, to the extent that, and for as long as conducive conditions prevail.
Are we finding employee engagement wisdom? Yes we know what to do and how to do it. It’s pretty simple, really. But, far too few enterprises have shown the willingness to follow the recipe for success and make Employee Engagement a priority process at their place. CEOs want to SAVE, EARN, GROW, PROTECT, COMPLY and SUSTAIN. Employee Engagement can contribute mightily to all of those benefit buckets; but most CEOs haven’t gotten that message; apparently, most CHROs and CFOs either don’t know, themselves, or they can’t deliver that message effectively.
Dick Melrose
Richard:
I appreciate your thoughtful responses. Love the idea of better knowledge of who rather than just what.
David