Davos. Stafford Hospital. Ghana. Burundi.
Curious bed-fellows. And yet they were filling my head this Thursday morning.
Read about Davos and you’ll soon hear about the topic on everybody’s lips: Engagement. Not the latest, short-lived celebrity pairing, but of getting people to buy into the latest big idea or solution, or even just to vote. From politicians, plutocrats and business leaders, the talk was about how hard it is to get people involved and contributing. In their words, people are not engaged.
And then I realized. They are spelling it wrongly. It is not about people engaging, it is about people en-joy-ing. Our leaders see engagement as something to impose from the outside in.
So, the question I asked myself was this: what would cause people to want to be involved? I believe that engagement comes from the inside out, when we enjoy what we do. And, when did you last hear a world or business leader talk about enjoyment?
Of course, I don’t mean the shallow, marketing driven, pleasure of that guilty chocolate bar, or of freshly washed, forest-scented hair. I mean the deep joy that comes from connecting to what’s important to us. The joy of connecting with people and with our values. And, sometimes, to new ideas.
In my work, I am privileged to speak with people about what matters to them. I hear the powerful emotions in their voices as they talk about their family, friends, honesty, beauty, fun or just helping others to have better lives. I am often spell-bound by how much joy and meaning people feel when they give to others. I’ve never yet heard anybody talk about money or power or rules in the same way.
Our reality is a profit-powered world hide-bound by rules. Rules to avoid any risk of litigation by trying to reach unobtainable absolutes of safety and security. Rules that pretend we are not fallible and human. The knee-jerk response to every event is to demand a new law; set up a new regulator or create a new process. We are building a modern Malleus Maleficarum and paying for crumbling, unsustainable and unaffordable bureaucratic edifices that try to enforce the unenforceable. Measurement targets and mediocrity have replaced excellence and enthusiasm. With their mockery, criticism and coolness, media and co‑media‑ns play the part of Tolkien’s allegorical Wormtongue, sapping the health and vitality of our personal King Theodens, and of the world itself.
And so we allow old people to die of cruelty in hospitals so that targets are met. The grey, pinched faces of commuters in the world’s richest cities mutely convey our success to the happy, beaming faces of poor people in Ghana and Burundi.
To politicians, plutocrats and business leaders, I say: Stop trying to impose engagement. Stop making more rules for people to hide behind. Stop inventing more meaningless targets. Banish your personal Wormtongue, and recognise that we like you more when you admit that you are human and vulnerable. We are all fallible. Mistakes help us grow.
Let’s stop living in Scare City and go to A Bun Dance instead. Start letting us enjoy what we do. Help us to connect with what is truly important to us, so that work and politics are part of our lives, not something separate to be endured and balanced. Try it: you just may be overwhelmed by our creativity and enthusiasm.
And maybe, just maybe, we will all sleep better too.
Very true. Well said, and to the point. I hope this may lead to people who read it to think how they can play their part in creating a new opportunistic, fresh and meaningful way for society and business to operate.
Thank you Ian. You’ve captured my aims beautifully. And if we can find a way to let our leaders be human and vulnerable too, then the we will all benefit.
Great post. Thought provoking to say the least. I have to ask; where does Stafford Hospital fit in ?
It’s the hospital that was widely in the news last week for allowing more than 1200 patients to die in appalling circumstances over a four year period covering 2005 to 2008. The report by Robert Francis QC was published last week and the conclusion was that the hospital had placed much more importance on meeting targets than on caring for patients. Needless to say, no-one was held accountable…
Well said Dave. For me it’s about leaders providing inspiration that will attract engagement. The lack of engagement represents a hunger for inspiration. There’s also a point about trust – if we concentrated on the integrity deficit, we might find that the monetary one takes care of itself a little.
And then though we all have responsibility for this. I see more and more people taking up the torch themselves and creating their own purposeful world. In the ords of Margret Wheatley “It is time to stop waiting for someone to save us. It is time to face the truth of our situation—that we’re all in this together, that we all have a voice—and figure out how to mobilize the hearts and minds of everyone in our communities.”
Thanks Alastair. I love your point about leaders inspiring to attract engagement. It’s a point Daniel Pink argues so well in “Drive”: Purpose is key to motivation. It’s also interesting to note the dissociation caused by nominalising “engagement”.
Great comments about trust and the integrity deficit too. So many organisations put profit or cost-cutting before integrity, when the reverse is more important for a good customer experience.
Curious also that you mention Margaret Wheatley. I heard of her for the first time only a couple of weeks ago at an introductory evening on Organisational and Relationship coaching. Yet more reading to catch up on!
Will of course update you. But first I’m going to read Joseph Jaworski’s book on synchronicity!
Thanks and regards, Alastair +44 7879 491751
Sent from my iPad
Hi Dave – I share your frustration at the detrimental impact of an increasing number of organisations focussing success on financial targets alone. What a difference it makes to the experience of employees, customers, clients and patients when the crucial, but often difficult to measure, needs and duty of care are entered into the equation.
Reflecting on the appalling circumstances at Stafford Hospital I think we have a lot to learn from a retired nurse I was speaking to recently who told me about her experiences as a Matron of a large ward in an NHS Hospital in the 50s and 60s. She said the focus then was on providing compassionate and attentive care to patients including keeping the hospital scrupulously clean. It made me realise how the rapid advance in medical technology and financial targets has been matched by a rapid decrease in duty of care in some of our hospitals. Sometimes it takes a shock wave to bring about massive change. Let’s hope the towering wave created by the Francis Report will carry positive, sustainable change in its wake!
Keep the blogs coming Dave..! Regards Christine
Thanks Christine. I agree there is a need for massive change in the NHS as I have been witnessing a friend of mine undergoing the pleasures of the NHS for the last four or five months of an extended hospital stay at a hospital which is 15 miles from his wife, who does not drive. Which I see as another demonstration of how quality of care for the “customer” has taken a serious dive across the board in order to make savings.
I was pleased to hear Antony Jenkins, CEO of Barclays comments in a couple of interviews this morning though. about the Barclays downsizing, he said:
“It’s about pairing a strong sense of purpose with a very clear financial plan” (Telegraph)
and
“Culture is about how we run the place. embedding a sense of purpose and the values we live by every day” (BBC)
Unexpected wisdom from a Banker!
Hi, Dave,
I find, as you do, that engagement flows from enjoyment. Our challenge is to set up our organisations and businesses with human intelligence and heart as the primary ‘share holder’ and focus. Joy will follow. Engagement will flow from there. Have you read “Firms of Endearment”? It has raised my hope for the unfolding of an economic system that will replace shareholder domination with employee/customer investment. Joy, for sure. Engagement as never before.
This is a brilliant post and brilliantly written. Engagingly, in fact.
Keep writing! The worlds needs you….
Nancy
Thank you, Nancy. Hearing from you certainly brings me joy! “Organisations with human intelligence and heart” would be a really engaging vision of success for me.
Thank you also for the reminder to read Firms of Endearment. It has slipped from my list of must-reads but is winging its way to my Kindle now. Hope to see you soon, Dave
Interesting to see the word “joy” mentioned here. I was just reading Brené Brown this morning and some quotes she used about joy:
The Greek word for joy is chairo. Chairo was described by the ancient Greeks as the “culmination of being” and the “good mood of the soul.” “Chairo is something, the ancient Greeks tell us, that is found only in God and comes with virtue and wisdom. It isn’t a beginner’s virtue; it comes as the culmination. They say its opposite is not sadness, but fear.”
and “Joy is what happens to us when we allow ourselves to recognize how good things really are.”
Enjoy!
Dave – beautifully written!
You’ve prompted me to play on words. Do i need to be engaged in order to enjoy myself or do I need to enjoy myself to be engaged?
Putting a business leader hat on….I would err towards the latter if we are to believe the research that higher levels of engagement leads to higher levels of performance.
So bring joy work, triggers greater engagement – sounds good to me!!
Thank you, Hugh. Delighted to hear that you are enjoying playing with words.
A nice point. Is it actually a virtuous circle, leading to Csikszentmihalyi’s Flow state?
A starting point for business and political leaders could be to help people en-joy what they are doing, leading to higher levels of engagement and in turn to greater enjoyment and so on. And joy comes from better connection to people and to what we value.
Great work Dave. I love the connection between en-gage and en-joy. Imagine what the world would be like if everyone enjoyed themselves!!! Perhaps we’d have fewer wars, less violence, less bullying, more love, compassion and community. And more productivity, pride and hope. Now there’s a thought. Waiting for your next post…..
I completely agree Dave, so let me ask a follow-on question … Is the very technology that promotes collaboration and engagement, actually contributing to the increase in societal unconnectedness and personal isolation that so many people now feel? In fact, is the ‘I’ in isolation indicative of the culture of one that seems to be creeping into many companies?
Wow, what an interesting question! My thoughts are that our brains will adapt and evolve quickly to generate positive rewards from interactions which are mediated by technology. This could be why smartphones are so addictive – the desire to experience connections. So, I’m reluctant to use technology as a scapegoat. However, poorly managed collaboration technology does make it much easier for team members to not be truly present during social gatherings, thereby damaging connections.
Regarding I-solation and the culture of one: my interpretation is that all organisations, and particularly the national and local political ones, have abdicated their responsibility for caring for individuals to focus exclusively on profits and targets. Stafford Hospital being one horrible example. The result is that each individual can no longer rely on protection from their communities and so they protect their own interests much more forcibly.
What do you think?
I agree with some of this and therein lies the beauty of debate! My sense is that the central challenge for many organisations lies in equipping their people to engage with and even enjoy what virtual collaboration tools can really do for them. How many companies for example mistake the creation of an online community with what’s needed at a human level for people to truly feel part of a community? Your home is part of a neighbourhood but how many associate with that as a community? For example what new skills do people need, particularly in ‘the management generation’, to participate in online tools to a degree that they can come to enjoy what the tools do for them? After all, if you simply build the platform for an online community without the attended change and upskilling processes to get people into it, they surely will not come.
And then there’s that word ‘virtual’ … virtual collaboration tool, virtual classroom etc.. How does does the usage of it seep into our brains as “Well it’s virtual, so it’s not real. Tell me again why I should bother?”