Starting at the End

Kudos and kompliments to David Zinger who not only founded the Employee Engagement Network but also had the good idea of an e-book: The ABCs of Employee Engagement (forthcoming).

And thanks, David, for inviting me to contribute my letters' worth. And I like your suggestion that I offer my 26 alpha-beta-engagementa snippets here first.

26 at one time seems an overload, so I am parceling out my ABCs, one-third at a time. And being a bit of the contrarian, I'm taking the ZXY view.

Here goes:

ig (or Zag). Engagement requires attention. Sudden zigs or zags, changes in approach, demand attention and stimulate engagement. Provide those changes and invite your people to take on change..."change-gagement."

earn. Intense longing for your organization to fulfill its culture via employee engagement gives you (and the organization) a better shot at fulfillment. Continually ask how much you yearn for employee engagement. Be prepared to give yourself shots of vitamin Y if/when necessary.

-trapolate. This means inferring the unknown from what is known. Guess-taking but your guess is based upon well-founded, well-grounded engagement. It's how you and your people take safe strides to move to the next level of engagement.

ager. Safe and sane x-trapolating gives you confidence to place a bet. You can wager on a new opportunity to encourage your people's engagement. Or bet on a communication plan to enliven your team's engagement. if you always think from the basis of organization's culture, you almost always have the odds in your favor.

isualize. Seeing engagement before it happens is almost as much fun as seeing it live and in person. Practice visualizing specific attributes of an engaged employee, an engaged team. When you have a clear picture, share it with your team. Then invite them to turn on their visualizers and share what they see. The visualizations need not be identical; but it sure helps when everyone looks in the same direction.

pset the cart
As long as the purpose is meaningful to your business (I/O/W, not just for the sake of "doing it"),  a little chaos can have good results. The sudden change demands engagement. The opportunities to witness, enjoy, and learn from the engagement experience can be great. HINT: Not a bad idea to involve the team itself in planning the cart-upset.

empt
Can you make a chance to engage seem like a sandbox your people can play in? Tempt them...not necessarily with a get-this-done-and-you-get-a-reward message. Instead work/play at making the engagement temptation meaningful and valuable of its own sake.

cintillate
Emit sparks. Be animated, witty, sparkling as you promote and model and celebrate employee engagement. The beauty of engagement is that it is a means to an end that makes the journey fun. You can exemplify that by your exciting engagement.

econnoiter
It always helps to know what lies ahead. The reasons for engagement will change as your business, its marketplace, the economy, your personnel population, and many more factors change. Pay attention to what's coming and your engagement can be proactive.