Employee Engagment Writers

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Comment by Robert Morris on May 2, 2008 at 1:42pm

At the monthly meeting of a business book breakfast club here in Dallas earlier today, Randy Mayeux provided a brilliant briefing on Big Think Strategy, at one point quoting author Bernd Schmitt on building support for a strategy: “Buy-in is a manipulative command-and-control system and everyone sees right through it…[because it] occurs top down through the corporate hierarchy [and employees] do not see the benefit and thus cannot make the strategy their own. Because there is nothing in it for them, their buy-in will be forced. Lack of motivation will be the outcome.” This observation is not always accurate, I realize, but it does suggest the importance of employee engagement being voluntary, not the result of coercion. What do you think?

Comment by Robert Morris on March 27, 2008 at 5:12pm

Among all the books published in recent years, two are especially relevant to the on-going discussions of employee engagement between and among members of the EE Network: Fired Up or Burned Out and Terms of Engagement. Here are two brief excerpts from my Five Star reviews of them for Amazon and Borders:

“Many of those who get ‘fired up’ about a new job, a new assignment, a new promotion, etc. eventually become "burned out" by it. What we have in this volume, written by Michael L. Stallard with Carolyn Dewing-Hommes and Jason Pankau, is a remarkably thoughtful and sensitive examination of the causes and effects of this familiar workplace situation. Stallard observes that, ‘Although people generally enter their organizations fired up, over time most work environments reduce that inner fire from a flame to a flicker.’ Why? They lack ‘connection’ with others, especially with their supervisors and immediate associates. As a result, they have unmet needs; more specifically, to be respected, recognized, included and accepted.”

“Stallard goes on to suggest that ‘the lack of connection will gradually burn [employees] out. Organizational environments where connection is low or absent diminish [employees'] physical and mental health. They create a low level of toxicity that drains [their] energy, poisons [their] attitudes, and impacts [their ability and willingness] to be productive.’ It is difficult (if not impossible) to calculate the total cost of such a situation, including its impact on customer relationships and retention of valued employees. The potential damage and (yes) cost of a group's disconnection must be at least the number of people in a given group compounded by a factor of 3-5, if not greater.

* * * * *

“In his Foreword, Axelrod asserts that his ‘is the first book to challenge the widely accepted change management paradigm. It provides leaders at all levels of the organization -- all those who initiate, design,, and implement change -- with a set of principles for bringing about change in a turbulent world. It is not a methodology, nor is it a set of techniques; rather, it is a set of principles that everyone can fall back on when faced with new and different situations.’”

I highly recommend both books. Each is a brilliant achievement.

Comment by Michael Kanazawa on March 26, 2008 at 1:22am

I'm happy to join this goup of writiers. As a brief personal introduction, a coauthor and I just launched our book BIG Ideas to BIG Results with FT Press/Pearson Hall. It is about strategy execution and corproate transformation and has several chapters focused squarely on employee engagement - which all of us here know is a key to making the bigger strategic moves. If you have an interest, you can learn more at www.bigideastobigresults.com. Please let me know what other types of writing projects people are involved in within our group here.