The Power of Engagement

Originally published January/February 2006

The other day I came home from a meeting, and got one of “those looks” from my wife. I suspect most couples who’ve been married for a number of years become very familiar with certain looks, and know what those looks mean even if no words are spoken. Well, the message behind this look was, “do you have any idea how those clothes appear on you?” Being essentially incompetent at picking out clothes that work well on me, I long ago learned to appreciate my wife’s involvement in these things. I don’t especially enjoy getting feedback that this shirt shouldn’t appear anywhere near those pants, but I know she’s right and does it for my benefit.

What happened next, though, truly pleased me. Rather than tell me what didn’t look good and how to fix it, she smiled and said, “let’s take a little walk.” We went over to a long mirror in the hallway, where she asked me to take a glance at the pants I was wearing. “What do you think?” she asked. I looked, and was amazed at how poorly they fit me. “Boy, they look awful!” I muttered. “Too long, really baggy, looks like a clown’s pants!!” The next day I took the pants in to get altered.

What my loving wife did in this instance was, she engaged me. And I loved it. She could have given me feedback on my appearance, and feedback is often effective, especially when it’s given with concern. But Jackie engaged me in the issue, she got me to take my own look at the pants, she gave me room to come up with my own conclusions, and I felt free to take action on what I saw.

NATURE OF ENGAGEMENT

In the workplace, engagement can take many forms. Here are some examples:

• A new person takes over an organization. Rather than do his/her own research on how the unit is functioning, what customers and others are saying about it, the new boss involves employees in doing that assessment together. This way, the employees hear positive and negative feedback and suggestions directly from others, not filtered through the new boss. They can ask for examples of what people like and don’t like in their operations. And they don’t worry that the new director has unfairly arrived at premature conclusions about their organization.
• A city council or county board is looking for ways to increase the supply of affordable housing in the community. Rather than relying primarily on public hearings (which can produce a lot of verbiage and posturing, but little thought and few creative ideas), the governing board invites a cross section of the community to form a taskforce and study the issue of affordable housing. Some members of the governing board are nonvoting members of the taskforce. The taskforce members learn together, they jointly explore alternatives, they keep the larger community aware of the options they’re considering. And when they make recommendations, there’s a good deal of community and political support.
• At Walt Disney theme parks, those who move into management learn that they will spend several days each year doing “real work:” taking tickets, cleaning up the grounds, selling food, helping to run one of the rides. Why? Because the Disney company learned decades ago that managers who spend time in their air conditioned suites quickly lose touch with the pulse of their customers and their employees. That is the same reason why some airline executives insist on riding in the coach section of their planes when they fly, unknown to the crew.

Engagement can be done in different ways; the previous examples are a very short starter list. What matters is to understand the key elements of engagement.

The three most important factors in engaging people are 1) involvement, 2) creating an open, honest dialogue, and 3) ensuring that people are responsible for the actions they take.

Think about the example with my wife and my pants. She didn’t start by telling me that I’d blown it (although the initial “look” suggested I probably had!). She smiled and suggested we take a walk to the mirror. Looking at myself in the mirror involved me. Then she asked “What do you think?” She wasn’t frowning, her eyes weren’t rolling. She asked me a question, and I felt free to be open about my reactions. When I said that the pants looked really bad on me, she didn’t have an “I told you so” expression on her face. If I’d told her that the pants looked great, no doubt she would have weighed in with her opinion, which is fine. Engagement isn’t about pretending or hiding our true thoughts.

Finally, when I saw how lousy the pants looked, it was up to me to take action. Engagement includes giving people the space to come to their own conclusions, and being responsible for those conclusions. So I decided, without prodding, that it was time to get the pants altered.

Engagement usually works when these factors are in place. People who are appropriately engaged feel free to think and decide, they like being empowered and not overly directed, they appreciate the implicit respect that comes from engagement. In addition, being responsible for their decisions and actions helps ensure that people take the experience seriously.

Engagement in the workplace, genuine engagement, requires employee involvement, an open, honest dialogue, and assurance that people are responsible for the actions they take. When we create these conditions we usually see performance that greatly exceeds our expectations and those of our employees. And we accomplish this without the resistance that happens so often when we direct people to change. If it works with me and my poor choice of clothes, it can work most anywhere.