You’re sitting in a really comfortable, deep red, crushed velvet theatre seat. You look up when you hear the swish of matching red velvet curtains open to display an imaginary scene set at a workplace.
Relax. Settle back & watch the four act play about employee engagement that’s about to unfold before your eyes.
Act 1
A busy office scene unfolds. You notice that people aren’t paying attention to one another. They are glued to their screens, stressed, staring vacantly about, rushing around in circles or arguing.
No doubt about it overwhelm & disengagement are on overdrive. You notice a magazine article on the office table, which reads 6 reasons your employees hate coming to work & what you can do about it.
Sitting in the audience, you stir as you recognize bits of yourself & your colleagues.
Act 2
Employees gather around a table while loudly debating what percentage of employees across 142 countries reported themselves as engaged at work.
They’re given four options:
- 8%
- 13%
- 26%
- 31%
Engagement is alternately defined as to hold attention, induce participation, bring together, or to offer one’s word as a backing to a cause or aim.
You find yourself wondering as well. So you take your guess at this survey.
The curtain closes again. It’s time for intermission so you grab a glass of vino & talk to your friend who’s there with you, about where you’re both at with regards to engagement
Act 3
The curtains open again to reveal the same group of people who’d been debating the employee engagement question, now hushed as they wait for the answer.
All eyes are on one woman as she announces the answer: the percentage of employees who feel engaged at work is only 13% a recent Gallup poll found.
You find yourself wondering if your shirt was this scratchy when you put it on this morning as you wriggle with discomfort. 13! You’re dismayed at the lost opportunities.
Act 4
The same woman who announced the 13% engagement rate is now talking about employee engagement like vitamin C, it’s good for everyone.
Engagement & it’s cousin working better together© benefits everyone – individual staff, solopreneurs, clients, funders, teams & organizations. It’s a big, broad topic though so she breaks it down.
Working better together© comes about through a strategic combination of the 6 C’s.
The 6 C’s are:
- Conflict resolution
- Communication
- Culture (e.g. intercultural communication & conflict resolution)
- Creativity
- Collaboration
- Celebration
The more skilled an individual, team & organization is at the 6 C’s the higher the engagement & working better together© factor.
Alter a lively discussion staff drift back to their work stations more content & on track for higher engagement in part because they’ve rated themselves & their organization at this easy peasy short survey, which has automatically shown them how they stack up against some 250 other people & teams.
As the curtains close for a final time you add another C – curiousity, because you want to learn more.
You promise yourself you’re going to take the survey because you’re curious & want to see how you compare to others. You also think of a few other folks you’re going to share it with as well.
As you walk out of the theatre with your friend, you have a hopeful, satisfied light in your eye because you’re going to satisfy your curiousity & get more engaged.
Annnnnnnd take action
- Check your tech – tech can hamper or harness a team’s strengths; check out my recent 7 day challenge
- Rate yourself & your team at this short survey & automatically find out how you compare to others
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