LITMIR.BIZ

Скачать книгу

new of managers, something that also needs to be measured differently – something more engaging. This book, I hope, will lead you through some suggestions on both.

      Prior to COVID-19, a revolution was unfolding at work. People felt we had curtailed the drive to be the best we can be in the pursuit of quarterly results or improved productivity; their organizations had become shackles. People were underengaged. They had not quite self-organized into engagement movements, or anti-management rallies, to oust what they perceived as poor leadership, but the many were growing less tolerant of the few. They may not have taken to the streets yet; they suffered in silence. It didn't mean the urge wasn't there. It's just that they hadn't yet found a way to topple these flawed corporate regimes that did little to inspire us. We had not quite figured out how to rise for a cause. But things were changing. Companies were struggling to find or keep skilled people. People were voting with their feet.

A Moment Can Become a Movement

We're talking about whole workplaces of people and large populations of industries who weren't really there. We were not moving people to do anything special. Is it any wonder that McKinsey touted a change failure rate of 70–80 percent? And according to a Gallup survey, some 60–70 percent of the workforce is underengaged, and, worse still, on average, some 15 percent are disengaged.² Does this actually mean we are operating at 20–30 percent of our people capacity?

And then came a pandemic that changed everything. For better and for worse, business models changed. Operating models changed. Our office space changed. Businesses proved they could create new shift structures, change our health and safety protocols, send large portions of work to people's homes. Even the people whom just weeks prior we pointed to as “difficult to change” changed. The pandemic showed the resilience of people, the hidden heroes among our everyday workers who stepped up. The people we sadly often didn't think about kept our economies, our businesses, our communities, and our homes safe, secure, and with meals on our tables.

      We can't waste the moment. It must become a movement. We must remember the sheer force of change that took place during the COVID-19 pandemic. And to do that, we cannot let our workplaces slip back into the underengaged, underenthused leaders and teams from where we came.

      Imagine what you could do if you flipped the formula. What if 85 percent were engaged? Imagine your productivity, your profitability, and growth. Imagine the challenges your teams would show up to solve? Imagine the world we could create.

      Unless these chronically low levels of employee engagement prepandemic, are addressed, the world's economies surely cannot recover, and transformation failure rates will remain as low. Perhaps plummet further. With these statistics, you surely won't achieve the results you want or need in your improvement programs, let alone the transformations you now need to achieve. And now, with people likely fearing the loss of their jobs even more, their neutral feelings about work will provide little foundation to grow from.

But Does It Have to Be This Way?

      As we cycle from recessions to tight labor markets and back again, it's clear that engagement still underpins business success. The COVID-19 pandemic showed us this. How you survive recessions, attract talent, achieve results, and keep your workplace safe are all impacted by engagement. Management practices stand to have the greatest impact on engagement. Better still, those that achieve high engagement have a competitive advantage.

      So, how do I manage to engage? That's the real question for leaders today. How do I move from a moment like this, a great global reboot, to a positive movement where people volunteer to engage?

You'll notice I used reboot and not reset. It's an important difference in intent. Reset feels too much like it would be OK to go back to the default setting of old – old management models and processes, old organization structures and behaviors, rather than lean forward into a reboot. When you install new software on your computer you are asked to reboot, not reset. The difference? Your computer cycles through a restart but starts up better than when you shut down. New value is created.

      So, how do we create that sense of volunteerism we saw in the height of the pandemic, in a postpandemic world of bipartisanism, fear, and distrust?

What Will Our Legacy Be?

      We are at a time in business history where leaders at every level, the people who manage the business day to day, stand to have the greatest impact on their business survival and growth, by how they themselves show up and engage – how they build a better business for people. A new people reality.

We even heard the World Economic Forum at Davos 2020 (prior to the global pandemic): “With the world at such a critical crossroad, this year we must develop a Davos Manifesto 2020 to reimagine the purpose and scorecards for companies and governments,” espoused Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chairman, World Economic Forum.³ The Business Roundtable announced similar statements in August 2019 on the Purpose of a Corporation. It was signed by 181 CEOs who committed to lead their companies for the benefit of all stakeholders – customers, employees, suppliers, communities, and shareholders. All of these statements require full engagement. They require leaders to manage to engage.

Is It Culpability or Capability?

During the pandemic, we already saw that things could be different. Creativity was delivered. Innovation accelerated. People stepped up. Logistics, online retailers, tech firms, health care, food and beverage, and transport found varying degrees of success. But in others we retrenched people and reduced costs. Hospitality, airlines, bricks and mortar anything. Many employees pointed the finger squarely at management and leadership and how they navigated through the pandemic. Others understood that their industries were casualties of a pandemic more than management. But all asked, “Where is this multi-stakeholder capitalism now?”

      It is here we need to start. This is where the tone and mood are set at work.

      You could think it was a straight leadership problem, poor leadership, but as the world continues to change so rapidly and with so much coming at leaders today, it becomes more a question of developing capability rather than assigning culpability. Are we developing our leaders effectively? Do we have the right tools and approaches for today's workforce? Are our workplaces free of the noise that prevents engagement, the politics that stops it in its tracks?

      With the best intentions, many managers struggle to engage their people because they don't lay the foundations for a safe, productive workplace. Leaders struggle to free themselves up to think about how their organizations could be better built to engage.

      We know how we manage and lead has a direct effect on how people feel at work. We know that people quit people more than their jobs. We also know that when your systems, processes, and workplace doesn't support you, frustration takes the place of enthusiasm and the camel's back is broken by the last straw that was hanging on to engagement. We switch off, we quit, or worse still, we quit and stay.

      So, what if you could bring a different mindset to engagement and apply new tools and approaches to help you enable people to engage? This is not about perks and prizes. As managers and leaders, we have an opportunity each day, each time we interact with people, to change their world of work for the better. Sometimes with small tweaks in how we connect or how our workplace connects with us, other times with large-scale change. All find their roots in engagement. All are necessary now more than ever. We will not build the businesses we all want to work for, the ones people will feel passionate about rethinking, reinventing, and rebooting, until we do.

Engagement, the Quiet Revolution, the Needed Movement

      What if we cast a brighter spotlight on the current workplace crisis? It isn't

Скачать книгу