Engage for Change              

Employee engagement capability for leaders

Rather than pick out one client story we describe the nature of the work we do in partnership with many HR and Learning & Development professionals in both the public and private sectors. Our aim is to build on existing development programmes where leader and employee engagement is seen to be a priority but currently missing.

What is the big idea?

In summary, the big idea is to focus on factors under the personal control of leaders and narrow down to a small number of personal attitudes & behaviours which individuals can concentrate on:

  • Focus on decision-making and behavioural factors under control of leaders, managers & supervisors: from research with 25,000 UK PLC workers and directors we have the evidence to support our 2004 hypothesis (developed with McKinsey) that the key driver of personal engagement is a culture and leadership style in which bosses take the risk to share power with and engage people in the day–to-day decision-making process and bigger ticket change process.
  • The big idea is a learning experience in which participants focus on a small number of personal attitudes and behaviours so they:
    • Have insight about how they engage others in decisions.
    • Have insight about their attitudes and assumptions about power.
    • Have insight about their personal presence, interpersonal communication and role in setting the right conditions for others to engage themselves.

As with all our work we work first quickly to understand the business context so that the learning experience (be that one-to-one, in class or on the job; which we favour) is seen to be and is a means to a business end rather than an abstract ‘training’ activity.

And, as with other work, we like to hand over quickly – we are a consultancy not a training company.

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Twitter

Press

Financial Times 'Share the Power'

John Smythe is featured in Stefan Stern's article of the 23rd March 2010.

Downloads

Click here for the downloads page

Including: John Smythe’s presentation to CIPR on 17 February 2010 at the offices of GAM

Material used at Engage for Change’s financial services seminar on engaging for recovery, held at the Groucho club on 17 February 2010

News

Books & Publications

Future publication:

Engaging people to drive performance

Do you have a great case for John's next book on engagement?