Freedom to Dream

Appreciative Inquiry (AI) has been used in organizational change efforts for a number of years now.  Can you use AI for Employee Engagement?

Here’s the 6 Fundamentals, as outlined by Whitney & Trosten-Blooms, that I believe have staying power with creating employee engagement that produces results.

  • Freedom to Be Known in Relationship
  • Freedom to be Heard
  • Freedom to Dream in Community
  • Freedom to Choose to Contribute
  • Freedom to Act with Support
  • Freedom to be Positive

Here’s what managers and supervisors can do to leverage this approach without being Pollyanna.

Freedom to Be Known in Relationship – where are there opportunities to see your employees outside of their job or role?  What kinds of conversations can you create build relationships with your staff? Humans are a connected-species. Sure, work defines us, but it doesn’t have to completely define who we are. We find connection and relationship through conversation. Harness the potential for relationship with your staff that models the type of relationships that allows them to connect fully to you and your organization. 

Freedom to be Heard – this involves your curiosity, empathy and compassion. How do you let your staff be heard? Open-door. One-on-one’s. Asking vs. Telling. When people are being heard, they open themselves up. This openness fosters employees to bring their complete capabilities to your organization.

Freedom to Dream in Community – this is about the vision. How connected is your staff to your vision? The vision of the organization? Do they have a clear line of sight on how they contribute to that vision? 

Freedom to Choose to Contribute -  this is key! With choice comes empowerment. How do you foster this contribution to projects, tasks, assignments? (Hint: Asking vs. Telling)

Freedom to Act with Support – when “people know that others care about their work and are anxious to cooperate” they build trust, achieve results and delight with surprise. How do you support your staff to take on new challenges? How do you treat mistakes? Easy to own up to, or catch me in you can mentality. Your trust and support is key to increased performance.

Freedom to Be Positive – we get more of what we focus our intention on. What conversations are you creating?  Threats, Weaknesses or Opportunities, Aspirations. Which do you want more of in your organization?  Focus the conversation on that!

Choose one Freedom to try on this week.  Focus some effort and intention on this one freedom.  What results to you want to achieve?

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5 C’s to Employee Engagement

I did a session a couple of weeks ago for staff at the University of MN on Engagement.  In preparation, I did some research on the topic – it’s even more critical in today’s world!  I kept coming up with information written for managers.  What managers could do to increase the engagement, or line of sight, with their employees.  (Part of my research exposed me to the 10 C’s by George Ambler, of the Practice of Leadership) Great, but what if your manager is like other in leadership who seem to becoming increasing disengaged in their own work? Here’s what we get to control:

✓ Clarity

✓ Communication

✓ Career

✓ Collaborate

✓ Confidence

I wanted this workshop to be geared towards employees. Employees who after a quick shot of 45-minutes could control their own Engagement and not have to rely on whether or not their manager was going to do something.  Yes, I do believe that managers/supervisors play an important role.  AND, I wanted to give some options – choices – to employees.  With choice, one can feel empowered! That was my aim for the session.

The X Model

I introduced the X-Model from Blessing White. I’ve gone to this well a number of times for really great resources on Employee Engagement and Leadership Development.   The model depicts an apex, or overlap where the organization and individual are getting their goals met.  This apex is where employees have maximum satisfaction and organizations see maximum contribution.  Cool view if you can get to the apex.

What might you do to get even closer – or stay in – the apex?

What can the individual employee do to take control of their own engagement?

The 5 C’s:

Clarity.               Clarity in your role and responsibility within the organization. How does the work you do on a daily basis contribute to the mission of your organization?  How does your unit contribute to the overall mission of the organization?  Asking for this clarity from your manager, if you don’t already have it is one step to take in increasing your own engagement.

Communication.          Regularly have conversation with your manager about your work and your department. This can be formal, like weekly one on one’s. It can also be informal, just stopping in to connect.  You might even think about your customers or other stakeholders – how have their needs changed in today’s world? Do they still need the service – or experience – you provided them in the past? Or does something need to change to meet their changing needs?  Talk about it.  Get in it! This type of communication is important when it comes to engagement.

Career.              Find ways in which to have rewarding and challenging assignments, duties, projects, or conversations that will help advance your career – or that will challenge you to think differently in your current career. It’s about networking. Create relationships that you can foster and cultivate. In your organization and out.  Another way to enhance your career is by creating an Individual Development Plan with your manager.  This allows you to take control of your own career development.  It’s also helping with the second C (Communication) of Engagement as well.

Collaborate.            Research shows that when people can work together in teams they develop trust and cooperation; they outperform individuals and create relationships with each other.  These are key ingredients found in people who are truly engaged in the work they do.

Confidence.            Being able to develop in an area in which you are competent and confident creates a stronger sense of engagement with your work.  Ask yourself, what is a relevant area that benefits both you and the organization in which you can focus some energy around and increase your confidence?  The key is to find the overlap between your needs, wants, and interests and those of the organization. We tend to feel better about the work we do when we know what is expected and when we have the skills to be successful with it.

It’s about developing confidence, not becoming complacent.

When you look at these 5 C’s which one of these can you try on this week? Put your focus on this one C for the next couple of weeks.  Might it have a difference in your level of engagement?  I can tell you it’s not going to subtract from it.

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Are you the 1 in 3?

I’ve been reading a lot of information about employee engagement and some of the stats, according to Blessing & White, are down-right scary. Only 1 in 3 people are truly engaged in their work. That means 66% of the people are not.

Fully engaged is measured by contributions on two levels – Organizational and Individual success. The organization has values, goals and strategies in place for success. These are factors they are looking to maximize. You and I, as individuals also have our own version of this. Together, great organizations can maximize these and create the apex of true engagement – one where the organization and individual reap the benefits.

Organizations must not be doing a good job at this, if they were, surely there would be more engagement. Or, might it be, we as individuals aren’t doing a good enough of this area for ourselves? Probably a deadly combination of the two.

Well, let’s first focus on what we control—OURSELVES.

To increase your own level of engagement at work (or in life for that matter!) ask yourself these three questions:

  • How does the work you contribute roll up to the overall mission of the organization?
  • What really excites you, or brings you joy, about the work that you are doing?
  • How might you go about creating “more of” this to connect fully to this organization’s mission?

In these answers lie the success – or lack thereof – towards becoming more fully engaged.  One of the things I’ve enjoyed recently is working with individuals and teams to help sort out the number of answers to these questions.  The goal – becoming more engaged myself and creating organizations that foster engagement.

The true benefit is when you wake each day and know how and why you contribute we can improve not only our satisfaction, but our performance. Up for the challenge?

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