Employee Engagement - A Manager’s Burden?

In our work with current and prospective clients around engagement, the discussion will typically start with a question: “How do we get our employees …”.

You may have heard the saying: "People don't leave organizations, they leave people.” (In particular, their direct manager.).  A lot of work has been done to try to "fix" managers.   I am not suggesting that developing managers is a bad thing, in fact it is imperative that managers continue to learn and grow to become the type of leaders everyone wants to follow.  However, when speaking about engaging employees, the burden has fallen again on the shoulders of managers which I would argue is not only unfair, but is also doomed to fail or get little traction.  A manager’s role in engagement is to create the conditions in which employees’ needs (including their own), can be met through mutual accountability.

Engagement and the culture of the organization is as much the responsibility of the employee as it is for their leaders.  Otherwise  the organization is setting itself up to have employees with entitlement issues, constantly waiting for their managers to make them feel better or to give them what they need. Managers are people just like anyone else.  They wake up in the morning with the best intentions in the world to support and recognize their people, and to ensure the organization is successful.  But they are human—not mind readers.  From Juice's research on engagement, we have created a short-cut to understanding engagement from both a rational, and an emotional level, through 5 statements:

I Fit.  I'm Clear.  I'm Supported.  I'm Valued.  I'm Inspired.

The degree to which an employee can make these 5 statements with emphasis will uncover how engaged and energized they are, and directly relates to the amount of discretionary effort and energy they can offer to the organization. These are not simply "employee" statements; they apply from the janitor up to the CEO, and typically a manager (unless highly tuned-in and skilled in the art of leadership) will not distinguish  which of these are most important to their direct reports.   Nor will they recognize what their employee is lacking or needing in order to assist them in moving towards higher levels of engagement.

The manager needs to create the conditions and develop the skills where:

• honest, authentic conversations can emerge and employees feel comfortable asking questions if they are not clear;
• they can discuss their fit and how they would like to advance in the organization;
• they can point out areas where they need support;
• they can express the areas in which value and inspiration are not present for them
• they can be a part of the solution: committed partners for the success of the individual needs, the team needs, the organizational needs and the needs of the client.

Bullying: At Work & School

During the past few weeks, strong anti-bullying messages have been circulating in an effort to end some of the the tragedies of student taking their own lives. Jonah is a 13-year-old boy with a disarming story. He tells his painful and often hard-to-watch journey in this video:

Perhaps I should have been stronger in my warning. As a parent of a child this age, Jonah’s plea is hard to watch. As a parent of a child who has been bullied, it is hard to watch. As a parent, I am just as lost as other parents about what to do to support a child when this happens. This insidious behavior can often leave our kids speechless - lacking the words to articulate and express what is going on. It may be their emotional, irritable or acting-out behavior that signals a problem. Thanks, Jonah, for putting words to what our kids are feeling.

As adults, we are just as perplexed about what to do when bullying happens in the workplace. The government introduced anti-bullying legislation in the workplace in Ontario 18 months ago and it has increased awareness about the problem, yet people are still unsure what to do if it happens to them, or if they see it happening to others. Bullying, in its simplest form, is one person being mean to another. It is an expression of an unmet need based in fear and characterized by threatening behavior.

I tell my kids that if they feel bullied, or if they witness behavior that appears to be bullying, they need to Speak Up, Speak Out and Speak Loud. They need to speak up to an adult or person of authority about the issue, speak out to the person mistreating them by creating boundaries around acceptable behaviors, and speak loud until they truly feel like they have been heard and the issue is being addressed by someone who can help. This isn’t always possible if children don’t feel safe in their school environment, and it isn’t possible if employees don’t feel safe in their work environment.

In addition to holding bullying behaviors to account, it is essential to understand what is at the core of the "bully’s" unmet need. This requires effective conversation and inquiry, which few of us have been trained to do. It is especially difficult when you are the parent of one of the children involved because it is such an emotional issue – staying calm and rational is not easy!

How have you navigated bullying behavior – either in your workplace or with your children? This is an issue that requires more conversation and an exchange of ideas. We’d like to hear yours… As parents, it is our responsibility to model impeccable behavior and perhaps we can do that by talking more about the issue.

Whose responsibility should engagement be: management or the employee?

I received a query from a magazine editor - whose responsibility should engagement be: management or the employee?

This is not a fence-sitting response - effective employee engagement relies on both employees and management.  Employee engagement is not a "broad program" you can enforce upon all. What engages each employee is as unique as that person. It is up to that individual to communicate what it is that he or she needs to feel like they fit, they're clear, what support they need, and what makes them feel valued/inspiredand rewarded.  If, as an employee I can't or don't communicate my goals and objectives, seek challenges and build a good rapport with my peers and managers, I will have a difficult time becoming engaged no matter what I do. The manager/leader's role is to ensure there is the type of environment that fosters these kinds of conversations so employees can flourish. There also needs to be "corporate will" from the top that management/leaders are committed to creating this kind of environment and putting into place, the kinds of reward and compensation structures that reward company values, positive behavior, a supportive, challenging environment, new ideas AND results.

The Undertow of Nursing Charting a New Course

An experienced charge nurse reviews staffing for the next shift.  She notes that two out of the three nurses coming on have less than a year experience and she is concerned.  In addition, the intoxicated patient in 54 is requiring hourly medications and frequent monitoring to avert DT’s (delirium tremors).  The charge decides that in order to safely staff the floor she needs four nurses - but the staffing office says they are very sorry (sick call or staffing grid), and she can only have three.

A surgical nurse helps her patient to the bathroom and the patient is weak and unsteady on post op day three from a hip replacement.  She foresees the likelihood of this patient falling at home and reports her observations to the physician, recommending that the patient stay another day to gain strength and more physical therapy - but the physician discharges the patient home anyway.  He’s being dinged for his length of stay and can’t afford to look like an outlier.

Another nurse notices on the fourth post op day that the patient has not had a bowel movement for four days; but she can’t give Maalox or even a suppository without calling the doctor first.  The nurse knows the surgeon is in the operating room and doesn’t want to interrupt.  She also knows that the same over the-counter laxative that the doctor would order is currently ten feet away in the medication room.

An undertow is more powerful than a wave. An un-articulated conflict is much more damaging to our esteem than an obvious one.  I could just as easily list scenarios where the nurses’ high level critical thinking, skill, autonomy and experience improved patient care.  But the reason for discussing these situations is to raise awareness of their presence so that the effect can be mitigated.  What effect?

Ambiguity increases self-doubt which in turn decreases self esteem; reinforcing nurses’ feelings of powerlessness.  Raising awareness of these internal role conflicts however, allows us to intervene and change course.  Many nurses take the above situations as ‘part of the job’, and fail to see how these daily conundrums insidiously chip away at their sense of self.  But if we can identify and talk about the undertow that pulls us down, we can chart a different course.  

To read the full article, click here The Undertow of Nursing: Charting a New Course.

Juice has partnered with Kathleen Bartholomew to create a two-part CD/DVD series that addresses the problem of nurse-to-nurse hostility and aims to provide the tools to end it. www.juicehealthcare.com.

Innovation Webinar Question #6

Q: How do we engage you?

A. Contact Juice inc. by phone 519-822-5479, email Kevin @ .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or Rick @ .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or visit www.juiceinc.com .

If you would like to view the Innovation in a Box webinar, click here.

Co-op Work Term

As a Business co-op student at Wilfrid Laurier University, I have had the opportunity to work at Juice Inc. as the Marketing Assistant for my first work term. My role has been such a huge learning experience, as well as an enjoyable one. It has given me the chance to learn and grow both professionally and as a person. It has allowed me to build a solid foundation as I pursue my future career in Marketing. The culture and environment at Juice Inc. is truly so enjoyable and stimulating. It has been such a pleasure coming to work and being able to work with such excellent people. From the day I started my position I felt so comfortable and part of the team. Everyone is friendly and more than willing to support and help one another. The non-hierarchical nature was something I also appreciated. Whether I was speaking to my manager or the founder of the company, I was always at ease and able to voice my opinion. The culture and coworkers allowed me to find a fit within Juice Inc., flourish, and have a very pleasant experience.

Innovation Webinar Question #5

 Q: Can you provide ammunition to make the case to a manager?

A. Ask them to watch the Innovation video (http://www.juiceinc.com/programs/show/innovation-in-a-box) and/or Webinar (http://www.juiceinc.com/media/webinar/innovation-in-a-box-everyday-people-breakthrough-solutions). I would suggest getting together on a call where we can go through the content.

• To help prepare for that, we’d send you a briefing form, which would prepare both of us.
• Then we would walk through an overview presentation (similar to the Webinar) together.

Innovation Webinar Question #4

 Q: While these tools are valuable for generating creativity - how do you "train" leaders to support innovation / create a culture of innovation, i.e., be willing to accept a level of risk from their team?

A: Two parts to this answer:

1. The individual Leader

2. The organization

The leader’s need to "get or understand" innovation in the same way that everyone else does. So, some of the basic theory is important. There is a business case to be made for innovation, and then they need to understand what’s required for implementation.

From an organizational change perspective, the following needs to be true.

There are general best practices that reflect what leaders can do to support the development of innovation as part of a culture. These include:

• Get the right people on the bus, which is as true for leaders as anyone else in the organization.
• Clear, regular communication of support and expectations
• Modeling the desired thinking and behaviors - including using the tools
• Understanding of the knowledge skill and behavior that lead to innovation and investing in ensuring people have them
• Identification of opportunities - and encouragement for identifying opportunities
• Openness to ideas
• Ability to assess balance risk and create practice opportunities
• The ability to encourage innovation at the individual level through the understanding of abilities, style, values and motivation.

As each corporate culture is distinct, there are also ways leaders can support the development of a culture of innovation that must be tailored to the organization and the point in time. A process of discovery creates a strategic, targeted approach for leaders to take to ensure innovation settles in to the organization with the least resistance and greatest return possible.

The discovery categories include:

• Definitions and expectations of innovation within the organization: if innovation is being talked about - how?
• How innovation fits into and contributes to the strategy: how will innovation move the company forward, and how aligned are leaders and others on this part of strategy?
• The current value discipline (operational excellence, customer intimacy or product development) or the service delivery imperatives that are perceived to be in place: What do people think are the priorities when working - doing things efficiently? Creating deeper relationships with the customer? By adapting and making new offerings?
• Current employee engagement and feedback on the culture: what are the current benchmarks?
• Iconic success and failure examples: are there common "legends" about trying new things in the environment now?
• How are new things assimilated - practically, personally and collectively?

If you would like to view the Innovation in a Box webinar, click here.

Innovation Webinar Question #3

Q: When asked to come up with a new idea. What do you find is the best method to start, brainstorming, brain-mapping etc?

A: If I’m working with a new group, I am going to do some standard things right off the bat. Let’s assume that I have a day, and the goal is less about training and more about truly tackling a problem/opportunity. Let’s also assume that I’m working with an average group, i.e. a mix of folks in terms of preferences, experience, buy-in, etc. As we work together, and get to know one another, the agenda may well flex.

I will do some positioning:

a. Torrance Test

b. The importance of breakthrough thinking

c. Brain Poker - lead in to i5, and the process

I like to have spent some time upfront clarifying the problem/opportunity statement. This can save a lot of time in the session.

• This helps educate me in the subject
• Helps get them into the session, thinking about the issue and because the process we’re giving them is steering their thinking, it’s helping them open up
• Is a bit of a diagnostic

I would take them through a process of investigation and ideation…

Investigation:

If I’ve done the pre-work, then I can start with this. Since I’m a graphic facilitator (which in this context simply means that I like to draw things out BIG), I may have pre-drawn one of these tools - based on the input I’ve received from my client prior to the session.

1. Let’s understand why this is an issue? Therefore a Context Map and/or Mindmap (which I like more than a Fishbone, but I’m using it as an analytical tool).

2. Springboard off of the Mindmap, generating ideas, I’m leveraging the investigation tool to start brainstorming. This is nice because it’s what I would refer to as a related stimulus (a slight skewing of the term I admit), it’s building off of what they know.

Ideation

I really like 3-12-3 brainstorming as a way to jumpstart beyond traditional brainstorming. It takes traditional brainstorming, and adds some additional structure.

• Stimulus Response
• Prototyping, but only SOME types of prototyping

If you would like to view the Innovation in a Box webinar, click here.

Innovation Webinar Question #2

Q: How do you go through the innovation process as a group when you have people in the different quadrants?

A: Ideas:

To paraphrase Jim Collins, your best bet is to have the right people on the bus, what IDEO calls "t-shaped individuals". The issue isn’t so much quadrants, as OPENness, i.e. we can think differently, but we need to be capable of dialogue.

However, in most cases cherry-picking a dream team isn’t an option. Even when it is, I start with the assumption that you are going to have people in different quadrants, which is okay, and that you’re going to have people who are less than fully open, which is not really Ok.

So I’m going to answer two questions:

• The one you asked - four quadrants
• The one you didn’t ask - i.e. about Openness

Four Quadrants

• Assume that you’ll have folks from each quadrant
• Play a simulation that we use called Brain Poker (For more information, contact us) to make the point - talk about the implications
• Demonstrate the importance of each type of thinking.
  • "Ideally we would have the right people at the right time…" but if our group is responsible for all four stages, that’s okay, we just need to stay conscious of the implications.
• Each stage has a suite of tools, which tend to provide more or less structure. Most people will prefer more structure and we’ll start by using those. Think of it as climbing a ladder, the lower rungs are easier to wrap our heads around. As you move UP the ladder there is more ambiguity, which ties to Openness…

Openness

• Tie it to the Torrance Test (another simulation we use), and the need for Openness. Be frank, some people are more open than others. That’s just the way it is.
• Tie to the advantages of breakthroughs (i.e. Cooper), but breakthroughs are equal to higher risk.
• Facilitate to keep people open, which can be rapidly shut down by hijacking.
• By teaching folks about the importance of staying open.
• By using a deliberate approach that moves folks from left to right on the structure spectrum - also on the related-random stimulus spectrum.
  • e.g. Value Chain Analysis
  • By using "Openness" exercises to keep it fun and upfront. These are similar to icebreakers, although I prefer to refer to them as brainwarmers.

If you would like to view the Innovation in a Box webinar, click here.