Do You Have A Highly Engaged Workplace Culture?

Paul Adam Mudd
Aug 27, 2017 · 5 min read

If you don’t yet have highly engaged employees and a can-do culture, chances are you will be feeling it in a number of ways — So, what can you do about it…

Motivation — Engagement — Change!

3 big words capable of evoking even bigger visceral responses.

For instance

Change is a word that can evoke many emotions.

People can be fearful of what it may involve or how it will affect them and in a time of upheaval and change in the workplace how can you motivate and engage others as well as keeping motivated and engaged yourself?

Engagement can be defined simply as the self-motivation that comes from someone’s involvement in, support for and satisfaction with something, which means that you feel a sense of commitment and are moved to take action or perform in the service of that something.

Commitment though is rarely built without you being engaged in some way or other, &, without commitment attitudes and behaviours are less likely to change.

But what about Motivation? Let’s take a look at that by 1st looking at…

Self Determination Theory

In the early 1970’s, Lepper, Greene & Nisbett undertook research into Self-Determination Theory and compared the pathology of Intrinsic & Extrinsic Motives.

Intrinsic motivation was defined as coming from the interest, satisfaction and enjoyment that a person feels and is likely to drive them to act by their own choice.

Whilst Extrinsic motivation comes from the value and usefulness that a person places on an external goal, such as a reward for a certain type of behaviour.

In Self-Determination Theory, Intrinsic motivation is understood to play a dominant role in influencing individual behavior and it is recognised that part of the self-determination drive will be the urge to increase one’s options and choice by engaging in exploratory, playful and curiosity driven activity that extends and exercises personal capability.

In short that’s how we can develop and grow!

Inextricable Links

Self-motivation and high levels of Engagement are inextricably linked, both in our personal life and most certainly in our work-life too.

Research by the Chartered Institute for Personnel & Development, has found that employees with the highest levels of commitment performed 20% better than their less committed colleagues and are 87% less likely to leave their Organisation.

Whilst in a Team context, fully engaged team members are 50% more likely to out perform expectations and these Super Performers will be 30% more productive overall!

These clearly are the sorts of people you want in your workforce…

So what can you do?

In organisational terms what needs to be done to help ensure that your workforce is engaged and remain committed; particularly through periods of change and upheaval? — And here we would do well to remember what John Kotter and Leonard Schleisigner identified over 30 years ago — Most companies undertake moderate change at least once a year, &, major change every 4 or 5 years.

I would suggest then that among other things you could do would be to — Introduce a Powerful Engagement Process — Create Strong Personal Connections — And have a People Plan for Change which I have already written about in other pieces — But let’s take a look at each of these 3 things in a little more detail:

  • A Powerful Engagement Process: It is absolutely imperative that 4 things happen as part of this process— You Communicate, You Involve everyone, You create real Learning opportunities, & You Reward: To underpin any change process, planned formal approaches need to be developed that bring people and the change together in a purposeful way that helps them articulate and confront any doubts, overcome resistance and build a commitment to the change, whilst new behaviours have a chance to firmly embed into the culture: In addition, A Powerful Engagement Process should provide ways for people to effectively connect with and understand the purpose for and reasons behind the change through clear and regular communication; to gain a sense of ownership and control; be appropriately rewarded and begin to develop the knowledge, new competencies & behaviours that are required
  • A Strong Personal Connection: This can give people the Self Determination & Intrinsic Motivation to become committed to new ways of thinking and working and part of this is enabling them to see personal opportunities for themselves whilst understanding that they can’t continue to work in former ways: At the heart of this is the right sort of Leadership coupled with ability to provide a coherent narrative that tells a believable and engaging story that stimulates trust, engagement and reciprocity, &, in other pieces I have already looked at the role of reciprocity in influencing, as well as the importance of storytelling as part of effective leadership; & finally you must also ensure you have
  • A People Plan for Change: People are an organisations single most important asset and a common factor in why many organisational change interventions fail, according to the work of Dr Janet Jackson, is that these organisations overlook the importance of people in the change process and do not fully address their concerns — So, although the workforce is part of the Whole System, it can be overlooked in the planning, development of appropriate metrics, delivery and subsequent evaluation and analysis — A very sobering thought, n’est pas?

As Kotter & Schleisinger pointed out, and as sure as eggs are eggs, some form change will happen to an organisation — either sooner, or later — &, it will very likely be costly, it will most certainly divert resources, take the focus away from the core business, and eat time-up that you don’t readily have in a highly competitive, fast-moving, complex and uncertain world.

So, Don’t make the technology you use to support and manage it, the primary focus of any change process — Don’t misinterpret the differences between transitional & transformational change — & Don’t fail to engage the workforce.

If you go short on any of these though, Do be prepared to fail and settle for merely rearranging the deckchairs…

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Paul Mudd is the author of ‘Uncovering Mindfulness: In Search Of A Life More Meaningful’ available on Amazon and www.bookboon.com; the ‘Coffee & A Cup of Mindfulness’ and the ‘Mindful Hacks For Mindful Living & Mindful Working’ series. He is also a Contributing Author to The Huffington Post and a Contributing Writer to Thrive Global. Through The Mudd Partnership he works with business leaders, organisations and individuals in support of change, leadership excellence, business growth, organistional and individual wellbeing and well doing, and introducing Mindfulness. He can be contacted at paul@themuddpartnership.co.uk and you can follow the continuing journey uncovering Mindfulness on Twitter @TheMindfulBook and at @Paul_Mudd

Thoughts And Ideas

An attempt to bring all heart-touching and thought provoking writings under one roof to make an impact.

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Paul Adam Mudd

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I’m About Making The Complex Less Complex, The Tough Stuff Not So Tough & Like Archimedes Finding A Place To Stand | Huff Post, Thrive Global & Medium Writer

Thoughts And Ideas

An attempt to bring all heart-touching and thought provoking writings under one roof to make an impact.

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