Richard Baker asked, a while back, what I saw going on with Employee Engagement:

I see people getting on a horse (engagement) and riding off in all directions at once. Some are Gallup-ing into engagement with their Q12 and some are feeding their staff  Hay. Okay, bad puns but it helps me write.

We seem to be moving ahead, behind, and staying still depending upon who is looking at engagement, how they are looking at engagement, and how they are measuring it. Yet I remain optimistic that engagement is more accepted while also being the target of  more criticism and humor. I worry employee engagement will die as a fad or bandwagon (without horses) in 5 year or so.  I actually hope it will disappear because it will be integrated into work management, and leadership.

I would like to see us divorce engagement from the word employee and pair it with other words, such as: work engagement, team engagement, personal engagement, organizational engagement, engaging management, leadership engagement, etc.

I worry about internal social media burning itself out a bit too. It can be a  great tool used judiciously but almost too much excitement about  it and then getting tired of it. Right now I notice lots of activity on LinkedIn as people jump on board this platform. This reminds me of blog comments about 7 years ago and some of the other tools from a few years ago that have faded away. Once all the hype dies down perhaps we will integrate social media as a vital community and collaboration tool. Having said that some are doing it well and some are just dismissive without looking at what is going on.

I am an idealist with a realistic streak, so engage along with me because the best is yet to be.

David Zinger is an employee engagement expert.