What are the ten tell tales of the engaged organisation?
How can you spot an engaged organisation?
First there will be laughter, enthusiasm and determination pouring from the people. It will be a place you come away from as a visitor thinking ‘I would like to spend some time there too’. It might be housekeeping at the Intercontinental hotel in London anticipating needs, the shop steward at Manchester Airport enthusing at being invited to improve service or site staff in Canada or Australia at mining giant Xstrata feeling they own the place.
From our latest and current research we believe that engaged organisations demonstrate ten possible tell-tale signs:
1. Devolved leadership.
2. Devolved accountability.
3. Devolved strategy.
4. Devolved structures.
5. Devolved processes.
6. Shared purpose.
7. Shared vision.
8. Shared responsibility.
9. Shared learning.
10. Shared innovation.
We have drawn these insights from our work and writing. CEOs talk to us about the challenge of engaging their leaders and people as being about setting the balance between centripetal and centrifugal forces, devolving absolutely as much as possible but sharing purpose, vision and crucially responsibility for performance, social obligation and compliance with regulatory requirements.
The key to this balance between devolvement and sharing is being clear about what is not negotiable – the givens – and the invitation to others to share power. If an individual or group debates the scope of the non-negotiables (the givens) they will be comfortable with engaging others. In fact as they define the non-negotiables these will shrink as people ask ‘why do we need to control this or that’ and the invitation to others will grow.
In so doing the thrust of leadership shifts from control and supervision to guidance, freeing leaders up for more creative work and the encouragement of others.
If engaging leaders and employees is largely a question of leadership philosophy, what practical process can be followed to create such a way of working? We think there are six.