Thanks to my Melbourne-based compatriot, Michael Specht, I have seen this video from McDaniel Partners on the issue of employee engagement.
Riffing off the incredible Miniature Earth, it delves richly and poignantly into the lives of the people you work with every day.
It’s an unfortunate fact that most organisations simply have no idea how to engage their staff, treating them largely as cogs in some Industrial Age dark Satanic Mill. The idea of an engaged, enthusiastic and loyal workforce is anathema to them and is blamed on Gen Y or lack of loyalty in some other area rather than a long, hard look into the corporate soul, which often has a black nothingness in the place where the bright, beating heart of a star should be.
It’s an unfortunately too frequent fact that companies and organisations spend little time on really engaging employees; giving them interesting and meaningful work, providing a workplace where staff can enjoy what they do, adopting a culture and philosophy that treats people as humans and work as having meaning and most importantly providing managers who will lead staff on a journey to something better rather than just put ducks in a row.
Managers and leaders in your organisation would do well to have this video shown to them and examine their role in its light. Oh, and if they haven’t yet read it, put a copy of Fish! on their desk. It’s one of the best business books I read in 2007.
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I like your approach and the way you voiced the thoughts on engagement. If you are interested in employee engagement or know someone else who is I encourage you to join the employee engagement social/information network at http://employeeengagement.ning.com. I love the title of you blog and have put it into my RSS feed on bloglines.
David
David, thanks for the comment and your kind words. While issues like engagement aren’t my bread and butter, as you can probably tell from looking around acidlabs, I consider them a critical factor when I discuss issues like knowledge retention and the right tools and culture for equipping knowledge workers to do their jobs well.
Thanks so much for visiting.
Stephen – I just wanted to thank you for showing our video. We completely agree with you that companies need to spend more time engaging their employees and FISH is a great starting place!
Thanks again, Judy
Judy, thanks for the complimentary words. I really do appreciate them. Your video was great, and I really think it would be valuable to get it out and about and in the minds of managers everywhere. And, yes – FISH! is a great book.